A knowledge-based framework for reference architectures

Software architectures play a major role in determining system quality, since they form the backbone of any successful software-intensive system. In this context, reference architectures refer to a special type of software architecture that capture the essence of the system architectures of a given domain, encompassing the knowledge about how to develop, standardize, and evolve systems of that domain. However, in spite of the considerable number of reference architectures available, no good understanding exists regarding knowledge contained in reference architectures. The main contribution of this work is to provide a better understanding of such knowledge and to propose a framework which presents a comprehensive panorama of this knowledge. An analysis of this framework is presented based on a relevant, well-known reference architecture widely used in industry. As its main result, this framework could provide a better understanding of the contents of such architectures, enablingthe development of more complete, efficient reference architectures.