Designing Software Architectures: A Practical Approach

3. The Architecture Design Process

In this chapter we provide a detailed discussion of ADD, the design method that is the focus of this book. We begin with an overview of the method and of each one of its steps. This overview is followed by more detailed discussions of different aspects that need to be considered when performing these steps. We suggest different roadmaps that provide guidance on when different types of design concepts can be used depending on which type of system is being designed. We also discuss the identification and selection of design concepts, the production of structures from these design concepts, the definition of interfaces, the production of preliminary documentation, and, finally, a technique to track design progress. ...