Lightweight Architecture Reviews for Dev. Teams

Software architecture reviews find weaknesses and strengths of design approaches, support innovation and spread architectural knowledge among developers. Unfortunately, traditional review approaches are often heavyweight and almost ceremonial in nature. In various software projects we tested a new review approach and with the help of many practitioners and iterations it was transformed into a mature review method that is lightweight and easily adopted: LASR...

In this practical talk, I will introduce the latest version of LASR - the Lightweight Method for Software Reviews. As a "pre-mortem on steroids" the method uses typical risk areas derived from 100+ system and software reviews as a starting point. It leverages effective parts of other evaluation methods and is known for a quick first result and iterative refinement options.

Following the book release and the subsequent wider adoption of LASR, this talk can provide practical insights and first-hand experience from different industries. Each participant gets access to support materials and plenty of tips for their own application.

Transcript

1. 0 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Lightweight Architecture Reviews for Dev. Teams Software Quality Days, 05/21/25 Stefan Toth
2. 1 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Stefan Toth Stefan.Toth@embarc.de www.embarc.de linkedin.com/in/sto-embarc CEO, Consultant Agile & Software Architecture
3. 2 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de
4. 3 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Why Reviews? Costs something and creates no direct value...
5. 4 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de
6. 5 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de
7. 6 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Architectural Topics Decomposition Which architectural style? How is the application structured? Subsystems, services, components, dependencies ... Technology-Stack What do we use? Programming language(s) Libraries, frameworks, middleware, Cross-cutting topics .... Environments How do we distribute and operate our software? On the edge, on-prem, Cloud? Virtualization, Zones, ... Processes How do we design, develop, test, build, deploy, document, deliver, refactor or modernize?
8. 7 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de We design intuetively
9. 8 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Rationality is possible – in retrospect Reflection (rational) Design (bounded, naturalistic)
10. 9 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de A short history of Reviews What is out there and since when?
11. 10 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de 1999 1998 2000 2001 2002 ATAM – Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method
12. 11 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de ATAM Steps Phase 1 Phase 2
13. 12 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de ATAM
14. 13 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de 2024 2023 2025 2026 2027
15. 14 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Evaluation and Review Methods CBAM Cost-Benefit Analysis Method PBAR Pattern Based Architecture Review TARA Tiny Architecture Review Approach ARID Architecture Review for Intermediate Designs DCAR Decision Centric Architecture Review DASE Decision and Scenario based arch. evaluation Pre-Mortem Risiko-Brainstorming and Mitigation ATAM Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method SAAM Software Architecture Analysis Method LASR Lightweight Approach for Software Reviews
16. 15 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Evaluation and Review Methods CBAM Cost-Benefit Analysis Method PBAR Pattern Based Architecture Review TARA Tiny Architecture Review Approach ARID Architecture Review for Intermediate Designs DCAR Decision Centric Architecture Review DASE Decision and Scenario based arch. evaluation Pre-Mortem Risiko-Brainstorming and Mitigation ATAM Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method SAAM Software Architecture Analysis Method LASR Lightweight Approach for Software Reviews
17. 16 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Pre-Mortem: Basic concept illustrated
18. 17 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Brainstorm Problems / Risks
19. 18 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Evaluation and Review Methods CBAM Cost-Benefit Analysis Method PBAR Pattern Based Architecture Review TARA Tiny Architecture Review Approach ARID Architecture Review for Intermediate Designs DCAR Decision Centric Architecture Review DASE Decision and Scenario based arch. evaluation ATAM Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method SAAM Software Architecture Analysis Method LASR Lightweight Approach for Software Reviews Pre-Mortem Risiko-Brainstorming and Mitigation
20. 19 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de „LASR“
21. 20 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de LASR Review
22. 21 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de 03. LASR Steps 1-2 Understand what makes you special...
23. 22 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Step 1: Lean Mission Statement
24. 23 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Mission Statements of Websites…
25. 24 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Finding Claims (Brainstorming) …
26. 25 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Step 2: Evaluation Criteria
27. 26 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de 14 Quality Attributes as ‘eval. criteria‘ Candidates
28. 27 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Top-5-Challenger (choose the 5 most important attributes) Default Top-5 Candidates
29. 28 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Top-5-Challenger (after 2 rounds) Top-5 Candidates
30. 29 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de In Workshops
31. 30 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Top 3-5 Quality Attributes (Spider Chart)
32. 31 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Quantifying Quality Objectives Note: This is an estimate, nothing measurable. The expected target levels for each quality attribute are mapped onto the axes of the spider chart, ranging from low to the highest possible expectations.
33. 32 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de The Quality Benchmark in LASR The top-3-5 quality goals A „target line“ with quantified quality objectives LASR Result Diagram
34. 33 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de 04. LASR Steps 3-4 Explore your Architecture
35. 34 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Step 3: Risk-based Review
36. 35 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Pre-Mortem: Basic concept illustrated
37. 36 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Add: Typical Risks for Inspiration A ‘Pre-Mortem on Steroids’ — LASR provides 32 standard risks across 8 risk areas to guide the risk brainstorming.
38. 37 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de The 8 risk categories of LASR
39. 38 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de 15 minutes into the future... My LASR talk has bombed… Why?
40. 39 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Risk Assessment
41. 40 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de
42. 41 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Gaps in the Diagram The assessed risks quantify deviations from the review benchmark, represented as ‘gaps‘ (red lines) in the LASR result diagram
43. 42 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de 1st Result
44. 43 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Step 4: Quality-focused Analysis
45. 44 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Find Axes you want to investigate Disagreement! Gap is controversial 1 No strengths in the solution, No specific solutions... Really no gap? 2
46. 45 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Deep Dive ▪ Fill the template with stuff you know ▪ Find important quality aspects ▪ Search for quality-related risks ▪ Find solution aspects that cause risks ▪ Re-Evaluate the Gap
47. 46 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de 05. Where Now? Further Information & Links
48. 47 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de LASR-Website ➔ https://lasr-review.org
49. 48 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de LASR-Community ➔ https://www.embarc.de/lasr-community/
50. 49 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Hyper-Fresh Coupon 55% off the suggested price
51. 50 Leichtgewichtige Software-Reviews embarc.de Feedback & Questions?