Coming attractions in software architecture

Software architecture has emerged as an important topic in software engineering. This paper examines what is new about the subject, and what is not, and what research trends we may expect in the future. We discuss the promise that work in the field holds, and organize the work into five predominant themes: selection, representation, evaluation, development, and recovery. Technology for the formal representation of architectures is examined in detail, along with notions of architectural styles and patterns. The paper begins by examining the range of meanings associated with the term in order to provide a context for its treatment.