Architectural decay during continuous software evolution and impact of 'design for change' on software architecture

Abstract

Software architecture is the blue print of software and guides the development and evolution of the software. A good design produces quality software and careful evolution of software leads to a longer life of the software whereas a bad design and careless evolution leads to decay of the software. This paper discusses the phenomenon of architectural decay and gives an account of the practices suggested in the literature for identification, resolution and prevention of architectural decay. The observations from a controlled experiment to study the impact of the prevention practice 'design for change' are also discussed. The results from the studied metrics suggest that software created without following a proper design has a greater tendency to decay. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.