Archinotes: A global agile architecture design approach

Abstract

Currently, many software developing organizations have adopted work methodologies around Global Software Development (GSD) in which the members of a geographically sparse team can coordinate their activities through collaboration tools. Nevertheless, these tools are focused primarily on the construction process rather than on the concrete design. It is usual that this kind of organizations have teams where its members are located in different cities or even countries. Due to this, architects must forcefully adjust their calendars to schedule face-toface or virtual meetings where they can define the architecture together. This paper's objective is to propose a tool that supports Global Agile Architecture Design (GAAD) approaches where architects can coordinate, communicate and control a software architecture design process while being geographically apart. To validate our proposal, we used the Universidad de los Andes' Software Architecture and Design course, were the students had to design a software architecture based on a concrete case study and an enterprise software development project to support an electoral process in a public Colombian university. The tool that supported the GAAD process was Archinotes, a platform that allows the design and documentation of software architectures in a collaborative manner. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.