Software Systems Architecture: Working with Stakeholders Using Viewpoints and Perspectives, Second Edition

6. Introduction to the Software Architecture Process

It is not our aim in this book to define another software development method or to radically change existing models of the software development lifecycle. However, many software development methods fail to clearly define the role of software architecture in the development lifecycle. If they discuss it at all, they usually view architecture definition as merely the first part of software design—and we hope this book will show you that this view is far too simplistic.

As we have seen, architecture definition is a broad, creative, dynamic activity that is much more about discovering stakeholder concerns, evaluating options, and making tradeoffs than simply capturing information. At the outset, ...