Architecture-Centric Evolution

Despite the general acceptance of software architecture as a pivotal player in software engineering, software evolution techniques have been traditionally concentrated on the code level. The state-of-the-practice is comprised of refactoring and re-engineering techniques that focus on code artefacts. However, recent advances have shifted the focus of evolution from the code level towards higher levels of abstraction and particularly the architectural level. The grounds behind this trend is that architecture captures the architectural knowledge (and particularly the design decisions and their rationale) for the whole system. Architecture can thus facilitate making new design decisions during evolution cycles, having full knowledge of past decisions. Furthermore the revision of non-functional requirements and especially cross-cutting issues can only be managed efficiently at an architectural level. The Workshop on Architecture-Centric Evolution (ACE 2005) attempted to explore the evolution of software systems based on their architecture. The workshop delved into this field, by presenting the latest research advances and by facilitating discussions between experts