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Using Pattern-Based Architecture Reviews to Detect Quality Attribute Issues - An Exploratory Study

  • Conference paper
Transactions on Pattern Languages of Programming III

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((TPLOP,volume 7840))

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Abstract

Architecture reviews are effective for identifying potential problems in architectures, particularly concerning the quality attributes of the system, but are generally expensive. We propose that architecture reviews based on the architecture patterns and their interactions with quality attributes can be done with small effort. We performed an exploratory study to investigate how much time and effort is required to perform such a review, and how many related issues it uncovers. We performed nine architecture reviews on small systems, and recorded the time and effort spent, and the number of issues identified. On average, a pattern-based review took less than two person-days of effort and less than a day of calendar time. The median number of issues identified was three, one of which was major. We recommend that where extensive architecture reviews are too expensive, a pattern-based review can be done with small effort and time.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics and Computing Science, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Neil B. Harrison & Paris Avgeriou

  2. Department Computer Science and Engineering, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah, USA

    Neil B. Harrison

Authors
  1. Neil B. Harrison
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  2. Paris Avgeriou
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington, Cottn Building, Gate 6, Kelburn Parade, 6140, Wellington, New Zealand

    James Noble

  2. Siebel Center for Computer Science, 201 North Goodwin Avenue, 61801, Urbana, IL, USA

    Ralph Johnson

  3. Faculty of Computer Science, Research Group Software Architecture, University of Vienna, Währinger Straße 29, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Uwe Zdun

  4. Department of Computer Science, University of Northern Iowa, 50613, Cedar Falls, IA, USA

    Eugene Wallingford

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Harrison, N.B., Avgeriou, P. (2013). Using Pattern-Based Architecture Reviews to Detect Quality Attribute Issues - An Exploratory Study. In: Noble, J., Johnson, R., Zdun, U., Wallingford, E. (eds) Transactions on Pattern Languages of Programming III. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7840. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38676-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38676-3_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-38675-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-38676-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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