Improving quality attributes of a complex system through architectural analysis-a case study

The Software Architecture Analysis Method (SAAM) is a method for analyzing architectural designs, providing support in the design process by comparing different architectures and drawing attention to how a system's quality attributes are affected by its architecture. We used SAAM to analyze the architecture of a nuclear simulation system, and found the method to be of great help when selecting the architecture alternative to use, and to draw attention to the importance of software architecture in large. It has been recognized that the quality properties of a system is to a large extent determined by its architecture; there are, however, other important issues to consider that belong to "lower" design levels. We describe how detailed technical knowledge affected the design of the architecture, and show how the development process in large, and the end product can benefit from taking these issues into consideration already during the architectural design phase.