Software Architecture Lifecycle

one my recent Architectural consultancy assignment, questions were raised for architecture life cycle. There is lot of literature about software development life cycle (SDLC) but hardly any on software architecture. In response of these questions I thought of documenting the Architecture Lifecycle.

In the proposed lifecycle I have broken down Software Architecture Lifecycle in five steps:

Step 1: In this step Software architect and stakeholders are identified and their interaction starts.

Step 2: This step is collection of three sub steps which result in design, documentation and analysis of architecture. These three steps are not very distinct and executed in iterative fashion.

Step 3: In this step realization of architecture take place. Different applications and products are designed and implemented as per the over all architecture.

Step 4: In this step learning from previous steps, historical records, industry trend, business requirements are constantly evaluated and fed back to step 1.

Step 5: This is last step of any architecture. This step is executed in case of obsolesce of current architecture. This step does not executed in one go but in baby steps. It means that parts of Architecture get retired and new things get into it. In rare cases step is executed in totality.

These five steps are not very distinct and get executed in iterative fashion.