Checklist: Architecture Notebook
Relationships
Related Elements
Check Items
Is the architecture understandable?
  • Is the description of the architecture complete, meaningful, and clear?
  • Is the architecture at an appropriate level of detail, given the objectives?
  • Are concepts handled in the simplest way possible?
  • Does the architecture clearly convey not only the solution but also the motivation and objectives related to the decisions that have been made in shaping the architecture?
  • Are the key assumptions and decisions that the architecture is based on documented and visible to reviewers and those who will use the architecture?
  • Is the architecture description current?
  • Have the design guidelines been followed?
Have the architectural goals, constraints and requirements been adequately described and handled?
Have necessary architectural mechanisms been identified and described?
  • Is it clear when each Architectural Mechanism should be applied?
  • Is there a clearly defined design pattern in place to support each mechanism?
  • Does each mechanism adequately address the requirements it is intended to meet?
Have the system partitions been adequately defined?
  • Is partitioning approach clearly described and applied consistently?
  • Does the partitioning approach reduce complexity and improve understanding?
  • Have the partitions been defined to be highly cohesive within the partition, while the partitions themselves are loosely coupled?
Have the key elements been adequately defined?
  • Have the Key Abstractions adequately defined?
  • Have the the key design elements (i.e., Components) adequately defined?
    • Do the components have well-defined interfaces?
    • Have the system's responsibilities been allocated to the components?
    • Are the number and types of components reasonable?
Have interfaces to external systems been adequately represented?
Has all reuse been identified?
Have all reusable assets been identified -- either those reused by the system, or those elements within the system that have been built to be reused.  For more information, see Guideline: Software Reuse.
Has the architecture been built to evolve?
  • Can the architecture easily evolve, so that expected changes can be easily accommodated?
  • Are all technical risks either mitigated or addressed in a contingency plan?
  • Has the architecture been overly structured to handle unlikely change at the expense of simplicity and comprehensibility? (Hint: "Yes" to this question is not good.)


Can the architecture be delivered by the team?
  • Does the architecture provide a suitable basis for organizing the development teams?
  • Does each team have the skills required to implement their allocated components?
  • Are responsibilities divided well between teams?
  • Do all team members share the same understanding of the architecture as the one presented by the architect?
  • Can team members understand enough from the architecture to successfully design and code their allocated components?
Has the software been adequately mapped to the hardware?
  • Have the deployable software components been mapped to physical nodes?
More Information