A classification of software reference architectures: analyzing their success and effectiveness

A software reference architecture is a generic architecture for a class of information systems that is used as a foundation for the design of concrete architectures from this class. We observe that certain reference architectures have become more successful than others. One of the reasons for this is the level of congruence between their goals, context, and design. In this paper, we provide a framework for the classification of reference architectures. Using our framework on a set of reference architectures, and based on experiences with reference architectures, we define five main types of reference architectures that have congruent goals, context, and design. Reference architectures that can be classified in one of these types have better chances to become a success. We illustrate our conclusions with a number of reference architectures. This research facilitates design of more effective reference architectures.