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Use of the ATAM in the Acquisition of Software-Intensive Systems

September 2001 • Technical Note
John K. Bergey, Matt Fisher

This report discusses the role of software architecture evaluations in a system acquisition and describes the contractual elements that are needed to accommodate architecture evaluations in an acquisition. The report also provides an example of contractual language that incorporates the ATAM as a software architecture evaluation method in a system acquisition.

Publisher:

Software Engineering Institute
CMU/SEI Report Number

CMU/SEI-2001-TN-009

DOI (Digital Object Identifier):
10.1184/R1/6585668.v1
Subjects

Abstract

Software architecture is critical to the quality of a software-intensive system. For an acquisition organization, such as the Department of Defense (DoD), the ability to evaluate software architectures early in an acquisition can have a favorable impact on the delivered system. This technical note discusses the role of software architecture evaluations in a system acquisition and describes the contractual elements that are needed to accommodate architecture evaluations in an acquisition. The note then provides an example of contractual language that incorporates the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) as a software architecture evaluation method in a system acquisition.