Architecture Review (Software Architecture)

1. Dr. Himanshu Hora
SRMS College of Engineering & Technology
Bareilly (UP) INDIA

2. Contents
 Introduction
 Goals of architecture reviews
 Types of review
 Basic review flow
 Work product and plan
 Review packages
 Benefits of architecture review

3. Architecture Reviews
 Architecture reviews are an effective way of ensuring design
quality and addressing architectural concerns
 The principle objectives of a software architecture review are
to assess an architecture’s ability to deliver a system capable of
fulfilling the quality requirements and to identify potential risks

4. Goals of Architecture Reviews
Architecture reviews ensure:
 The architecture of a system is documented
 It provides a coherent description of the system
 It is conformant to State and Agency principles, standards and
plans
 It is compatible with the legacy technical landscape
 That the chosen technology and design is likely to achieve the
project’s goals and objectives

5. Types of review
 Project process reviews
 Project Initiation Review
 Approve project goals, strategy, concept
 Iterative projects may propose how they will articulate
architecture and design
 Planning / Design Review
 Approve project architecture, solution design, technology
direction
 Do this each time architecture changes
 Execution / Build / Pilot Review (pre-release)
 Approve architecture /design changes that may occur
during E&B

6. Cont..
 Purchase process reviews
 Pre-purchase Review (RFP, IFB)
 Ensure sensible technical language in requirements
 Purchase Proposal Review (pre-award)
 Approve technology selections, architecture and strategy
of proposal

7. Basic review flow
 Submit documents (project team)
 Review documents (architect)
 If issues are found:
 Resolve issues
 Re-submit
 If issues are not resolved:
 Approve with issue or Reject
 If rejected:
 Re-plan and resubmit or halt
 If approved with issue
 Track and resolve issue later on

8. Data Flow Diagram Of Architecture Review
Author Moderator Reviewers
Y N
DESIGN REVIEW
Prepare work
products and
plan
Ready
for
review ?
Examine
work
products
Read package
Study work
products
Prepare
comments
Schedule review
send out
packages
Prepare
review
package

9. Work Product & Plan
 Work products (design)
 use cases
 class diagrams
 primary responsibility of each class
 sequence diagrams
 models
 etc.
 Plan
 what will be reviewed and the order
 what types of issues will be covered
 don’t hide risks

10. Review Package
 Intro- history, key problems, important decisions,
requirements, designs, analysis etc
 Agenda- Order materials will be reviewed
 Criteria- Define the various fields
 Work products- Use cases, class diagrams, sequence diagrams,
etc
 Reviewer assignments- What each reviewer is responsible for;
e.g. give each reviewer responsibility for a subset of the
classes

11. Roles In Review Process
• Moderator – not a member of reviewed team
• keeps review moving
• ensures all voices are heard and key points covered
• ensures decisions are made: accepted, major/minor
revisions, further review
• Recorder – member of the reviewed team
• takes notes, records all issues raised and decisions reached,
all questions, suggestions, and action items
• publishes a report of the review

12. Roles In Review Process
• Reviewers
• Raise questions, concerns
• Author and design team
• Answers questions but is otherwise silent

13. Benefits of Architecture Review
 Identifying potential risks in the proposed architecture
 Assessing quality attributes (for example, scalability,
performance)
 Identifying opportunities for reuse of artifacts and components
 Promoting good architecture design and evaluation practices
 Reducing project cost caused by undetected design problems
 Capturing the rationale for important design decisions
 Uncovering problems and conflicts in requirements

14. • Conforming to organization’s quality assurance process
• Assisting stakeholders in negotiating conflicting requirements
• Partitioning architectural design responsibilities
• Identifying skills required to implement the proposed
architecture
• Improving architecture documentation quality
• Facilitating clear articulation of nonfunctional requirements
• Opening new communication channels among stakeholders
Benefits of Architecture Review

15. Dr. Himanshu Hora
SRMS College of Engineering & Technology
Bareilly (UP) INDIA