
Designing and maintaining a software architecture that strikes the right balance between conflicting quality attributes is a daunting task facing every software architect. In the SA@Work project we have conducted ethnographical field studies of practicing software architects in four Danish software companies to study architectural work in general and architectural techniques in particular. In this paper, we describe observed techniques related to architectural quality as input to the architectural body of knowledge. Second, these techniques are classified according to the quality view classification framework of Garvin. Our analysis shows that techniques for assessing and ensuring quality in software architecture predominately view quality as an intrinsic quality of the architecture itself and less view it as related to business and users. This hints at a need to extend the architectpsilas toolbox and may explain observed mismatches between architectural work and agile processes.
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 5 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% |
