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Architecture review checklist

 Reviewing an existing system architecture or an architecture document for a system to be developed is a common responsibility for project teams and architects. A checklist ensures a structured and thorough review, preventing important aspects from being overlooked. Below is a comprehensive checklist for architecture documentation:

1. System Goals and Requirements

  • Are the major system goals clearly stated?
  • Are architecturally significant requirements identified and documented?
  • Are measurable non-functional requirements explicitly defined?

2. Architecture Documentation

  • Can the overall organization of the system be understood after reading the architecture document?
  • Does the document describe all relevant architectural views?
    • Logical view – Are class diagrams provided for each component to express functionality?
    • Process view – Does it describe how control threads are set up, interact, evolve, and terminate?
    • Physical view – Is a deployment diagram included to explain how the system will be deployed?
    • Development view – Does it describe how the code is structured?
  • Does the document provide a rationale behind the architectural approach?
  • Has a build-versus-buy analysis been conducted, and are decisions based on it (e.g., tool/product selection)?
  • Does the document recommend specific tools and technologies?
  • Is the rationale behind the selected tools and technologies clearly explained?
  • Are alternative solutions presented besides the recommended one?

3. Functional Architecture

  • Does the document provide a functional view (functional decomposition of the system)?
  • Is the functional view driven by functional requirements?
  • Are all functional requirements covered by the functional view?
  • Are modules identified, and does each requirement map to a module?
  • Are module interfaces defined?
  • Is there an optimal balance in the number of modules (sufficient but not excessive)?

4. Software Design Principles and Best Practices

  • Does the architecture account for changeability?
  • Is reusability addressed in the architecture?
  • Does the architecture follow the “avoid chatty interfaces for remote calls” principle?
  • Does it adhere to the “Don’t Repeat Yourself” (DRY) principle?
  • Is separation of concerns ensured through layering or other design styles?
  • Is there a data access layer to abstract data storage implementation from business logic?
  • Is the database model defined in sufficient detail?

5. User Experience & UI Strategy

  • Are all key objects identified?
  • Does the document define how user inputs will be handled efficiently?
  • Is the user interface design strategy outlined?
  • Is a modular user interface design approach considered?
  • Is error-handling strategy described in sufficient detail?

6. Performance & Scalability

  • Does the document provide sufficient detail about how I/O will be handled?
  • Is sizing information provided?
  • Are module-wise resource requirements estimated?
  • Does the document describe how the system will recover after failure events?
  • Does the architecture account for scalability and future growth projections?

7. System Dependencies & Integrations

  • Are the main stakeholders of the system identified?
  • Are users/actors of the system described?
  • Are regulatory and compliance requirements considered (if applicable)?
  • Are interfaces to external systems defined (if applicable)?
  • Is the integration strategy described?
  • Is the rationale behind integration tool/technology selection provided?

8. Transaction Management & Availability

  • Does the document describe how long-running transactions will be handled to avoid performance issues, especially across system boundaries?
  • If required, does the document describe how high availability will be achieved?
  • Does it describe how external access will be provided (if applicable)?

9. Deployment & Release Management

  • Is the release management strategy clearly outlined?
  • Are component descriptions provided at a sufficient and precise level?
  • Are relationships between components well-documented?
  • Are cross-cutting concerns addressed and solutions described?
  • Does the document describe how initialization and reset will be handled?

10. Security & Internationalization

  • Is the security design described?
  • Does the architecture define how Internationalization (I18N) will be supported?

11. Testing & Migration Strategy

  • Does the document include a testing strategy?
  • If applicable, does it outline a migration strategy?
  • Is the data loading strategy defined (if applicable)?

12. System Complexity & Design Quality

  • Is the system designed with low complexity?
  • Is the system designed with high cohesion (each component has a single responsibility)?
  • Is the system designed with low coupling (components don’t depend on internal details of others; abstraction is used)?
  • Does the system maintain an optimal fan-in and fan-out balance?

Final Thoughts

This checklist provides a structured approach to reviewing architecture documentation, ensuring key aspects of software design, performance, security, and maintainability are covered. An effective architecture review helps mitigate risks early, improves system quality, and ensures alignment with business objectives.



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