Using Architectural Decisions

Abstract — There are increasing demands for the explicit representation and subsequent sharing and usage of architectural decisions in the software architecting process. However, there is little known on how to use these architectural decisions, or what type of stakeholders need to use them. This paper presents a use case model that arose from industrial needs, and is meant to explore how these needs can be satisfied through the effective usage of architectural decisions by the relevant stakeholders. The use cases are currently being validated in practice through industrial case studies. As a result of this validation, we argue that the usage of architectural decisions by the corresponding stakeholders can enhance the quality of software architecture. I