What is the most effective way to evaluate your system architecture?

1 Define the criteria

Before you start evaluating your system architecture, you need to define the criteria that you will use to measure its quality, performance, and suitability. These criteria should be based on the system requirements, stakeholder needs, and best practices of your domain. Some examples of criteria are functionality, reliability, scalability, security, usability, and maintainability. You should also prioritize the criteria according to their importance and relevance for your system.

2 Choose the methods

When evaluating your system architecture, you need to decide which methods to use. The level of detail, complexity, and maturity of the architecture will determine which types of methods are best suited. Review is a qualitative method that involves examining the documentation for consistency, completeness, correctness, and clarity. Analysis is a quantitative method that applies mathematical or logical techniques to compute metrics that reflect the characteristics of the architecture. Simulation is a semi-quantitative method that creates a simplified representation of the system and tests its behavior and performance under different scenarios. Lastly, experiment is an empirical method that implements a prototype or mockup of the architecture and observes its actual behavior in a real or controlled environment.

3 Collect the data

When evaluating your system architecture, you must collect data that can be qualitative or quantitative, based on the methods used. Examples of data include documents, which are written or graphical descriptions of your system architecture, metrics which are numerical or ordinal measures, indicators which are derived or aggregated measures, and feedback which are opinions or comments from reviewers. All of these provide insights into the strengths and weaknesses of your system architecture.

4 Analyze the data

Once you collect the data that you will use to evaluate your system architecture, you need to analyze the data to draw conclusions and recommendations. The analysis can be descriptive or inferential, depending on the type of data. Descriptive analysis summarizes the data and presents its main features, such as mean, median, mode, standard deviation, frequency, or distribution. On the other hand, inferential analysis tests the data and infers its implications, such as hypothesis testing, correlation, regression, or factor analysis.

5 Communicate the results

Once you have completed your system architecture evaluation, it is important to communicate the results to relevant stakeholders, such as customers, users, managers, developers, or testers. This can be done verbally or in writing, depending on the audience and the purpose. If you choose to communicate verbally, this may involve briefings, meetings, or workshops; if you choose to communicate in writing, it may involve reports, papers, or articles.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?