Experiences from Architectural Evolution

Frameworks for describing a company’s architectural maturity have in recent years emerged in literature. These are often biased towards the particular flavor or architectural concept which is the point of interest of the specific author, be it component-based development, platforms, product lines or highly configurable code bases. They can therefore be valid for helping a company reach one particular level of architectural maturity. What they do not provide are guidelines for which such maturity levels are suitable for companies in particular situations. The authors of this paper acknowledge that different companies have varying needs, and that the business situation and business goals of a company will determine what architectural maturity level is more suitable for that company. In this work the authors have studied architectural situations at twelve companies in order to determine why and how these companies have moved between maturity stages. We attempt to create a general framework for describing these different stages and giving guidelines for companies on how to traverse the maze of architectural evolution.