Software Architect's Handbook

Making guided architectural changes

Software architects should guide any changes to a software system's architecture so that the characteristics of the architecture remain intact. A software architecture is shaped by the design decisions that were made, which give it certain properties and enable particular quality attributes.

When an architecture must adapt to some technical or business change, it is not sufficient to simply make any change that will allow it to adapt. Software systems are dynamic and modifications to them can have unintended consequences. As an increasing number of changes are made to the software system and its architecture over time, a lack of oversight can allow the quality to erode. A software architecture's characteristics ...