CMU CS 15-675 Architectures for Software Systems Spring 1998
Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM)
with answers
Garlan & Kazman Questions on Readings for Lecture
14 Due: Wednesday, Feb. 25, 1998The papers:
[Kaz98]: The Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method
Hints:
We recently looked at the problem of analyzing a software architecture in a repeatable, documented fashion using SAAM. SAAM, while useful, can really only provide insight into modifiability-related qualities (portability, integrability, maintainability, etc.). But many systems’ driving qualities are those related to how the system works at run-time, such as: performance, security, availability. In addition, all of these qualities can be in a mutual state of tension: increasing one may decrease another.
When reading this paper, do not worry about the precise details of the performance, security, and availability analyses: they are incidental. Think about how designs can be represented and compared, and how this comparison can be documented. Think about how this might change the architectural design process.
Questions:
1) How do you determine the appropriate level of granularity at which to analyze an architecture?
Through an analysis of risk: areas of high risk are analyzed more deeply. There is no one "right" level at which to analyze an architecture.
2)
Define a "tradeoff" in the sense of the ATAM.A tradeoff is an architectural element to which multiple qualities of interest are sensitive.
Modified: 5/20/98