A good design is the key to a successful product. Almost 2000 years ago, the Roman architect Vitruvius already recorded what makes a design good: durability (rmitas), utility (utilitas) and charm (venustas). These quality requirements still hold, for buildings as well as software systems. A well-designed system is easy to implement, is understandable and reliable, and allows for smooth evolutio...

Software architecture has received much attention in the past few years. This is not a block diagram that gives a rough functional decomposition of the system. It is a multiperspective, quality-based approach to ensuring that software is built to fit its purpose. In this edition of Strategic Software Engineering we will consider how software architecture provides strategic support to the organi...