Sustainable Reference Architectures

Abstract

Reference architectures refer to a special type of software architecture that contain knowledge of a given domain and promote the reuse of this knowledge for the development, evolution and standardization of systems in that domain. A diversity of reference architectures have been proposed and increasingly used in diverse domains, such as Industry 4.0, healthcare, transportation, and the automotive sector. However, most reference architectures have not survived or long-lived after their first release or publication, while considerable knowledge, time, and effort are usually spent to design them. Hence, the general objective of this project is to advance the state of the art of the field of Reference Architecture by introducing a novel concept of sustainable reference architectures. To achieve this, the main specific objectives are the proposal of set of characteristics of these architectures (considering the technical, social, economical, and environmental dimensions of sustainability), a definition of sustainable reference architectures, and an evaluation method for reference architectures aiming at assessing their sustainability and the presence of technical debts that can impact such sustainability. Concerning the research method, literature review, survey, interviews, and case studies will be adopted, each one in those more adequate activities. As a result of this project, it is intended to mature the field of Software Architecture, particularly Reference Architectures with the introduction of a novel concept that may change the mindset about how to deal with reference architectures. This project is part of a FAPESP Thematic Project (Grant: 2023/00488-5) and of a research project associated with the PQ/CNPq Fellowship (Grant: 313245/2021-5), contributing to core points of these projects.