Architectural tactics addressing quality concerns in complex system architecture

Managing complex multidisciplinary engineering project is a key challenge faced by the 21st century engineering manager. To manage the structural complexity they often rely on system architecture; these systems architectures are often focused on the functional aspects of systems and are constructed using heuristics. Modeling based systems engineering (MBSE) provides a methodology to use models for constructing systems engineering artifacts and supports traceability. Also with the advent of SysML, more and more architectural representations are inspired by object oriented design borrowed from software engineering. Software engineers however use object oriented design patterns to address design concerns and not so much architectural concerns. Typically, software architecture development involves rigorous application of attribute driven design (ADD). ADD uses system specific prioritized list of quality attributes, defines quality scenarios, associates architectural tactics and builds the architecture around those quality attributes. In this paper we introduce a case study that demonstrates the application of ADD on a complex system engineering project and present the resulting architectural artifacts. Copyright, American Society for Engineering Management, 2012.