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Software Architecture Guide

ATAM Evaluation Team and Stakeholder Selection

Explanation

Section titled “Explanation”

An ATAM evaluation (see Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM)) brings together a trained evaluation team, the architects, and representatives of the architecture’s stakeholders. A stakeholder is anyone with an interest in the system (see Stakeholder). The evaluation typically lasts three to four days.

The evaluation team

The evaluation team is external to the project. It has three to five members. Its roles include:

  • an evaluation leader,
  • scenario scribes,
  • a proceedings scribe,
  • a timekeeper,
  • questioners.

The stakeholders

Stakeholders are a separate group from the evaluation team. They are brought in at Phase 2, where a wider group brainstorms scenarios in an open session. A scenario is a short description of a situation the system must handle (see Quality Attribute Scenario). The scenarios from all stakeholders are then prioritized by a vote of the entire stakeholder group (see Voting).

Preparation

Selection happens before the analysis. In Phase 0, the evaluation team and key project decision makers meet informally. They arrange logistics, such as the stakeholder lists. This preparation can run over a few weeks.

Education comes next. The evaluation leader describes the method to the assembled participants, so everyone knows how the evaluation works before analysis begins.

Who is in the room shapes which scenarios appear and which ones get votes.

Example

Section titled “Example”

A company plans to evaluate the architecture of a new order platform. Two weeks ahead, an outside team of four meets the project’s decision makers. Together they draft the list of people to invite. On day one, the evaluation leader explains the method to everyone. Later, the invited group brainstorms scenarios and votes on which matter most.

Trade-offs

Section titled “Trade-offs”

The facts here give no cost figures beyond the three-to-four-day duration. An external team brings distance from the design. It also needs weeks of informal preparation with the project’s decision makers before the evaluation starts.

Who takes part, and when, in an ATAM evaluation

Diagram source 
flowchart TD
  P0[Phase 0: evaluation team and decision makers arrange logistics and stakeholder list] --> E[Evaluation leader explains the method to all participants]
  E --> S[Phase 2: stakeholders brainstorm scenarios]
  S --> V[Entire stakeholder group votes to prioritize]

Checks

Section titled “Checks”
  • The evaluation team is external to the project and has three to five members.
  • Team roles are assigned: evaluation leader, scribes, timekeeper and questioners.
  • A stakeholder list was arranged between the evaluation team and key decision makers during Phase 0.
  • The evaluation leader explained the method to all participants before analysis.
  • Scenarios from all stakeholders were prioritized by a vote of the whole stakeholder group.
Section titled “Related”

Sources

Section titled “Sources”