The Need for a Multilevel Context-Aware Software Architecture Analysis and Design Method with Enterprise and System Architecture Concerns as First Class Entities

Abstract

Traditional analysis and design approaches focus on "fit for purpose." Experience with contextual environment concerns demonstrates that "fit to context" is a consideration that is equally significant for the appropriateness of the chosen architecture. We propose a multilevel, context-aware approach to software architecture that (1) treats contextual environment concerns as first class entities and (2) groups concerns and techniques of different abstraction, scope and grain into separate explicit levels. We categorize contextual environment concerns into enterprise and system. The proposed method groups software architecture in macro-architecture and micro-architecture levels. In a significant departure from most current software architecture practices, we view and treat macro-architecture as a decision analysis discipline while applying the engineering modeling and design practices used in traditional software architecture methods to the micro-architecture level. In this paper we introduce the software architecture approach and method, discuss our current research, and identify the topics that must be addressed and further defined to complete the method.