Stakeholder-centric assessment of product family architecture : practical guidelines for information system interoperability and extensibility

This paper presents a method for software product family teams to assess their family architecture with respect to family-relevant system-qualities. The method extends current architecture assessment practice through its explicit orientation to family-issues; its emphasis on those family-stakeholders neglected by conventional development methods; and its focus on providing practical "how-to" guidelines and mechanisms to enable method-users to successfully complete the required activities. Initial design and implementation of the method addresses the important system-qualities of interoperability and extensibility. The paper has a practical orientation, and concentrates on illustrating research results using industry-based examples from case-studies where the method was applied in the ongoing architecture development of commercial medical information system product families