Selecting Application Frameworks Using Architectural Patterns and Tactics

Architects often evaluate, analyze, and select application frameworks that totally or partially implement architectural patterns that structure architectural software design to address different quality attribute concerns. To satisfy the quality attributes through architectural patterns, these must be complemented by architectural tactics. Although architectural patterns pack architectural tactics, there has been little discussion on the effect of using architectural tactics to support architectural patterns to select application frameworks in architectural design. This study reports a controlled experiment with IT professionals (N=28) that evaluates architectural patterns and tactics to select application frameworks. We considered two scenarios: Scenario 1 includes architectural patterns and tactics as decision mechanisms, and scenario 2 considers only architectural patterns. We used precision, recall, and a custom efficiency metric as variables to compare the scenarios. The results indicate that scenario 1 produces more pragmatic and efficient solutions than scenario 2 does. This study showed that architectural tactics reduce the space for solutions and help filter application frameworks to make more precise decisions regarding architectural design. Authors: Gastón Márquez and Hernán Astudill