Silverio Martínez PhD thesis

Abstract of the thesis:

Background: Software reference architectures are becoming widely adopted by organizations that need to support the design and maintenance of software applications of a shared domain. For organizations that plan to adopt this architecture-centric approach, it becomes fundamental to understand how software reference architectures are engineered, and to know their return on investment. Unfortunately, there is a lack of evidence-based support to help organizations with these challenges. Goal: The main goal of this PhD thesis is to support organizations making informed decisions about software reference architecture acquisition, design, and use based on empirical evidence. Methods: To accomplish this goal, we have conducted an action research approach in an industry-academia collaboration between everis (a multinational IT consulting firm based in Spain) and our Research Group of Software and Service Engineering (GESSI). Results: The results from our industry-academia collaboration led to uncover novel evidence on the use of software reference architectures in practice. The procedures and evidence obtained have been packaged to design guidelines that could be used in similar contexts as the one of everis. Conclusions: This PhD thesis supports organizations to acquire and engineer software reference architectures by providing evidence-based support. Such evidence-based support consists of the results of the empirical studies conducted in this PhD thesis, and the presented guidelines for gathering new corporate evidence.

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