Software Architecture in Practice, Second Edition

Chapter 2. What Is Software Architecture?

with Linda Northrop

Note: Linda Northrop is a program director at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute.

If a project has not achieved a system architecture, including its rationale, the project should not proceed to full-scale system development. Specifying the architecture as a deliverable enables its use throughout the development and maintenance process.

—Barry Boehm [Boehm 95]

In Chapter 1, we explained that architecture plays a pivotal role in allowing an organization to meet its business goals. Architecture commands a price (the cost of its careful development), but it pays for itself handsomely by enabling the organization to achieve its system goals and expand its ...