Future-Proof Software-Systems : A Sustainable Evolution Strategy

Software is a key success factor for products and services. The tremendous impact of software on all areas of our work, life, and on society is undisputed and is growing every day.

The software community has a strong responsibility to produce and operate dependable, trustworthy and useful software. The software should at the same time provide business value and guarantee a number of quality of service properties, such as security, safety, performance, maintainability etc. In this book, this objective is achieved by using:

• An adequate strategy “Managed Evolution”;
• The engineering best practice “Principle-Based Architecting”.

Managed Evolution is based on a stepwise, risk-controlled, integrated approach leading to future-proof software-systems, i.e. to sustainable, viable and dependable software-systems. In principle-based architecting, a set of enforcable architecture principles are formulated and applied during each evolution cycle of the software-system.

This book provides a set of good engineering practices for the development of future-proof software-systems.

This book focuses on software architecture and the value of architecture in the development of long-lived, mission-critical, trustworthy software-systems. The author introduces and demonstrates the powerful strategy of “Managed Evolution,” along with the engineering best practice known as “Principle-based Architecting.” The book examines in detail architecture principles for e.g., Business Value, Changeability, Resilience, and Dependability. The author argues that the software development community has a strong responsibility to produce and operate useful, dependable, and trustworthy software. Software should at the same time provide business value and guarantee many quality-of-service properties, including security, safety, performance, and integrity. As Dr. Furrer states, “Producing dependable software is a balancing act between investing in the implementation of business functionality and investing in the quality-of-service properties of the software-systems.” The book presents extensive coverage of such concepts as: Principle-Based Architecting Managed Evolution StrategyThe Future Principles for Business Value Legacy Software Modernization/Migration Architecture Principles for Changeability Architecture Principles for Resilience Architecture Principles for Dependability The text is supplemented with numerous figures, tables, examples and illustrative quotations. Future-Proof Software-Systems provides a set of good engineering practices, devised for integration into most software development processes dedicated to the creation of software-systems that incorporate Managed Evolution.