An approach to software architecture evaluation with the 4+1 view model of architecture

Abstract

Architectural evaluation to determine a software architecture's fitness with respect to its desired quality attributes is one of the most important issues in architecture-based software development. However, existing techniques have too many limitations for widespread application, such as the inappropriate representation of architecture and ambiguities in the evaluation process. Therefore, this paper presents an approach to evaluate software architecture with a 4+1 view model in UML. Our approach is divided into three main areas of activity: the work involved in preparation, execution, and completion of the evaluation. By performing these activities, architecture evaluation can be explicitly described and its result can be systematically organized based on the 4+1 view model. In addition, we show the practical applicability and features of our approach via an ATM example.