Systematic selection of software architecture styles

Selecting appropriate styles for software architectures is important as styles impact characteristics of software (e.g. reliability). Moreover, styles influence how software is built as they determine architectural elements (e.g. components, connectors) and rules on how these elements are integrated in the architecture. Therefore this study presents a method, called SYSAS, for the systematic selection of architecture styles. In SYSAS, style selection is based on (a) characteristics of basic architectural elements that are relevant for the developer, and (b) characteristics of the target system that are visible to the end user. The selection procedure requires ratings about the importance of characteristics of architectural elements and results in a ranking of styles. SYSAS can be applied at system level as well as for choosing styles for individual subsystems. A case study is presented to illustrate SYSAS and its applicability and added benefit. Additional case studies are performed to compare results of SYSAS with judgements of experts.