A Rationale-based Model for Architecture Design Reasoning

Chapter 4
Research methodology and
validation
The discipline of software engineering is concerned with all aspects of software production.
It provides a systematic and organised approach to guide software development and
implementation so that it is effective in delivering high-quality software [146].
There are two general approaches to systematically building up software engineering
knowledge. Both of these approaches are useful and complementary. The first approach
is described as the natural characterisation of maturing software technology [131]. Software
technologies can be invented through a process of asking basic research problems,
formulating ideas and concepts, developing and generalising those ideas through to their
commercialisation [138]. In the initial stages of problem identification and concept formulation,
it is relatively difficult to prove that a concept can eventually be practical and
useful. This is because a technology depends heavily on the context of the environment
where they are applied. Although some software technologies referred to as research-in-thesmall
can be tested in the laboratory, many software engineering techniques rely heavily
on real-life situations which are not always easy to verify in an experimental setting [41].
A second approach is to apply software engineering processes through practice and refinement
in real-life projects. In other words, the prime expectation is to improve quality
and productivity at an organisation level. A typical example is the application of quality
systems such as Integrated Capability Maturity Model (CMMI) [1, 16] or Six Sigma Total
Quality Management [144] in an organisation. The CMMI process specifies that software
development organisations can continuously monitor and improve their software development
process by capturing process and product measures quantitatively, set performance
objectives based on these measurements and optimise the performance. An organisation
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