State-of-Practice in Architectural Change Management for Software-Intensive Systems: An Interview Study
2025 (English)In: 22nd IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture, ICSA-C 2025, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) , 2025, p. 434-441Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Modern software-intensive systems are growing more complex, evolving continuously, and requiring extensive collaboration across diverse domains. Effective documentation and communication of architectural changes are critical to managing the development of such systems. But this task remains challenging due to constraints in time, resources, and standardized practices. This study investigates the practices and challenges related to architectural documentation and communication in the development of software-intensive systems through semi-structured interviews with architects from four partner companies. The findings reveal key challenges, including identifying stakeholders for communication, inconsistent architectural definitions across teams, and knowledge transfer issues due to differing tools and terminologies. Participants also shared their reliance on informal mechanisms and ad hoc processes to address these challenges. Insights from this study highlight the need for more structured, standardized approaches, flexible documentation methods, and improved cross-domain collaboration tools. The results provide actionable recommendations for both practitioners and researchers to enhance documentation practices, improve team alignment, and ensure the effective management of architectural changes in dynamic and large-scale software systems.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) , 2025. p. 434-441
Series
International Conference on Software Architecture Companion, ISSN 2768-4288
Keywords [en]
architectural changes, cross-domain communication, semi-structured interviews, Software-intensive systems, Groupware, Software design, Ad hoc process, Change management, Diverse domains, Interview study, Knowledge transfer, Semi structured interviews, Software intensive systems, State of practise, Human resource management
National Category
Computer and Information Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-72419DOI: 10.1109/ICSA-C65153.2025.00067ISI: 001549223000060Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105007892454ISBN: 9798331520908 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-72419DiVA, id: diva2:1976737
Conference
Proceedings - 2025 IEEE 22nd International Conference on Software Architecture, ICSA-C 2025, 31 March 2025 - 4 April 2025, Odense, Denmark
2025-06-252025-06-252026-02-16Bibliographically approved