Software Architect's Handbook

Fitness functions

In evolutionary computing, a fitness function is a type of objective function that is used to determine how close a given solution is to achieving the desired result. They return the fitness of the solution. They are used in the design of genetic algorithms to generate an optimal solution for a given problem.

Fitness functions can be applied to a software architecture to determine how close the designed solution is to achieving the desired architectural characteristics. They are an objective way to assess a software architecture's characteristics. Fitness functions should be clearly defined and provide a quantitative measure of how fit a solution is for a particular problem. A quantitative result is what will allow us to ...