An analysis of decision-centric architectural design approaches

Emerging research suggests that software architecture can be represented as a set of design decisions. Several decision-centric architectural approaches have been proposed, which provide methodological support to design reasoning and justification. However, these approaches have different premises and they address different aspects of design reasoning. We analyze this developing field from three perspectives: architectural knowledge modeling, architectural design techniques and design rationale capture and use. From this analysis we have identified areas of improvements such as ASR identification, design reasoning process and architectural knowledge management.