Evaluation of software architectures using multicriteria fuzzy decision making technique

Software architectures is a critical aspect in the design and development of software. Architecture of software is a collection of design decisions that are expensive to change. A correct architecture has the largest single impact on cost and quality of the product. Though architecting constitutes 10% of the product development cycle, it determines 90% of the product development costs. Given the impact that software architecture has on a project's success, the need to choose the right architecture assumes significance. Organizations often need to choose software architecture for future development from several competing candidate architectures. In this paper, a new architecture selection method based on multicriteria fuzzy decision making technique has been developed and validated using a suitable case study.