Software Architecture in Practice, Second Edition

Part Two. Creating an Architecture

Part One of this book introduced the Architecture Business Cycle (ABC) and laid the groundwork for the study of software architecture. In particular, it set out the influences at work when an architect begins building a system, and it pointed out that requirements for particular quality attributes such as performance or modifiability often originate from the organization's business goals. How then does an architect create an architecture? That is the focus of Part Two. Because the achievement of quality attributes is critical to the success of a system, we begin by discussing quality and how it is achieved with the contents of the architect's tool box.

Quality is often in the eye of the beholder (to paraphrase ...