architecturecentric

Architecture-centric, or architecture-centric development, is a software and systems engineering approach that places the system’s architecture at the heart of the lifecycle. In this view, the architecture is the primary artifact used to drive requirements, design, implementation, and verification. The term is applied across software engineering, enterprise architecture, and product-line engineering to emphasize decisions about structure, quality attributes, and interfaces early in the project.

Core activities include creating an architecture description with multiple views, performing early architectural design, and documenting quality attributes and constraints. Architecture-centric methods commonly employ techniques such as attribute-driven design (ADD) to derive components from desired attributes and ATAM to evaluate trade-offs and risks. Prototyping, modeling, and formal or semi-formal analyses help validate critical decisions before full-scale development.

Lifecycle integration involves treating architecture as a living artifact whose description evolves with requirements and technologies. Architecture governance, versioning, and integration with development practices help manage change and ensure consistency between requirements, design, and deployment across iterations.

Benefits include improved system quality, modularity, reusability, and risk reduction through early evaluation of critical choices. Challenges include potential upfront cost, the need for skilled architects, and tensions with some agile or time-to-market pressures if architecture work is deferred or siloed.

Related concepts include enterprise architecture, the 4+1 view model, and ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010, which provides standards for architecture description and documentation.