Using Quality Attribute Workshops to Evaluate Architectural Design Approaches in a Major System Acquisition: A Case Study

摘要

To a large extent, a system's software architecture determines the quality attributes of both the software and the entire system. It is also one of the earliest artifacts available for evaluation. For a Department of Defense (DoD) or government acquisition organization, the ability to evaluate software architectures early in the acquisition cycle can positively affect the delivered system. To assist a government organization in evaluating architectures, a series of Quality Attribute Workshops (QAWs) were planned and an initial set conducted as part of a competitive acquisition of a complex, integrated command and control system. The QAW is a 'lightweight' (i.e., non-intrusive) version of the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method(SM) (ATAM(SM)) developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). The QAWs provided the acquiring government agency with a means to evaluate each contractor's software architectural approach and determine whether it satisfied the system's quality attribute requirements (e.g., performance, interoperability, security). Since the acquisition is ongoing, follow-on workshops are currently being scheduled to evaluate the architectural designs as they evolve. This technical note provides an overview of the QAW process and the results of the first set of workshops, including the perceived benefits of the workshops to both the acquirer and the contractors. It also discusses future opportunities for applying a full-scale architecture evaluation (e.g., an ATAM evaluation) in early stages of system acquisition, and identifies the benefits that could be obtained.