Architecture Evaluation Methods Research Articles

Sustainable architecture evaluation method in an African context: transgressing discipline boundaries with a systems approach

This paper presents a method for poverty-inclusive evaluation of architectural sustainability. Existing evaluation tools largely ignore poverty—an omission that renders them inadequate for use in a developing country context. Methodological challenges arise from the complexity due to inclusion of poverty alongside numerous other sustainability aspects. Moreover, the shared transdisciplinary nature of architecture and sustainability coupled with inherent scale polarities add to the complexity. The evaluation method discussed here adopts concepts from systems theory to develop a framework that addresses the above challenges. It yields credible results in a developing country context with a dearth of research precedents and databases. The method was applied in an empirically based study of the sustainability performance of earth walling techniques in Uganda. The study showed that, from a sustainability viewpoint, wattle-and-daub performs best, followed by adobe, whereas the most popular brick was only better than compressed earth blocks. In their transparency, the evaluation method and results here presented can stand conventional academic scrutiny. But the conclusions point to the need for greater acceptance of transdisciplinary approaches to knowledge conceptualism if the holistic disposition of sustainability, architecture and sustainable architecture is to be accommodated.

Software architecture evaluation methods based on cost benefit analysis and quantitative decision making

Since many parts of the architecture evaluation steps of the Cost Benefit Analysis Method (CBAM) depend on the stakeholders' empirical knowledge and intuition, it is very important that such an arc...

Software Architecture Evaluation

作为在软件生命周期早期保障软件质量的重要手段之一,软件体系结构评估技术是软件体系结构研究中的一个重要组成部分.将现有的软件体系结构评估方法划分为3类:基于场景的评估方法、基于度量和预测的评估方法以及特定软件体系结构描述语言的评估方法.按照软件体系结构评估技术的评价框架,分别从评估方法的目标、质量属性、关键技术等方面对这3类方法的特点进行介绍和对比.最后分析了现有研究中存在的不足并进一步探讨了软件体系结构评估技术的研究趋势.;Software architecture evaluation is an important technology used to assure the quality of software products early in the software lifecycle. This paper classifies three types of software architecture evaluation methods: scenario-based, metric and prediction based, and ADL-based. Software architecture evaluation method characteristics (such as method goal, quality attribute, key technique) are then combined with these classifications to produce a comparison framework. This paper utilizes this framework to analyze various existing software architecture evaluation methods and point out problems which need to be resolved. Finally, potential research directions of software architecture evaluation methods are discussed.

Early quality prediction of component-based systems – A generic framework

Component-based software engineering is currently an emerging technology used to develop complex embedded systems. These embedded systems need to fulfil requirements regarding quality attributes such as safety, reliability, availability, maintainability, performance, security and temporal correctness. Since quality problems should be identified and tackled early in the development process, there is a rising need to predict and evaluate these properties in the architecture design phase. This paper describes a generic framework for predicting quality properties based on component-based architectures, which is derived from a comprehensive study of recent architecture evaluation methods. This generic framework defines common aspects between the different evaluation methods and enables the improvement of evaluation methods for specific quality properties, by transferring knowledge from one quality domain to the other. Thus, this paper can help to create better evaluation methods in the future.

Supporting ATAM with a collaborative Web-based software architecture evaluation tool

As software companies are becoming increasingly globalised, a number of issues arise with respect to the social and environmental aspects of conducting the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM), a software architecture evaluation method developed by the Software Engineering Institute. It would be fair to question the applicability of the ATAM to commercial companies. In this paper, we show that there are important issues and potential weaknesses in the ATAM from a social context. We provide suggestions for a means of overcoming these potential pitfalls through the assistance of the ubiquitous Internet. We then describe a tool dubbed ACE (ATAM Collaborative Environment), a Web-based software system that provides a common environment where stakeholders and software evaluators alike can take part in an ATAM evaluation without having to be physically collocated.

Review of Software Architecture Analysis and Evaluation Methods

Review of Software Architecture Analysis and Evaluation Methods