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0 7 4 0 -7 4 5 9 / 1 4 / $ 3 1 . 0 0 © 2 0 1 4 I E E E J a n u a r y / F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4 | // Architecture evaluation is an important activity in the software engineering life cycle, but unfortunately, it isn't regularly practiced in industry. Decision-centric architecture reviews uncover and evaluate the rationale behind the most important architecture decisions.Experiences in large industrial projects have shown that full-scale DCAR evaluations, including reporting, can be conducted in fewer than five person-days while still producing satisfying results for stakeholders. //

Abstract-In this paper, the notion of forces as influences upon architecture decisions is introduced. To facilitate the documentation of forces as a part of architecture descriptions, we specify a decision forces viewpoint, which extends our existing framework for architecture decisions, following the conventions of the international architecture description standard ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010. The applicability of the viewpoint was validated in three case studies, in which senior software engineering students used it to document decisions in software projects; two of which conducted for industrial customers. The results show that the forces viewpoint is a well-received documentation approach, satisfying stakeholder concerns related to traceability between decision forces and architecture decisions.