A survey on software architectural assumptions

Context: Managing architectural assumptions (AA) during the software lifecycle, as an important type of architecture knowledge, is critical to the success of projects. However, little empirical evidence exists on the understanding, identification, and recording of AA from the practitioners' perspective.

Objective: We investigated the current situation on (1) how practitioners understand AA and its importance, and (2) whether and how practitioners identify and record AA in software development.

Method: A web-based survey was conducted with 112 practitioners, who use Chinese as native language and are engaged in software development in China.

Results: The main findings are: (1) AA are important in both software architecting and development. However, practitioners understand AA in different ways; (2) only a few respondents identified and recorded AA in their projects, and very few approaches and tools were used for identifying and recording AA; (3) the lack of specific approaches and tools is the major challenge (reason) of (not) identifying and recording AA.

Conclusions: The results emphasize the need for a widely accepted understanding of the AA concept in software development, and specific approaches, tools, and guidelines to support AA identification and recording. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.