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  5. Architectural Design Decisions Survey
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Hello,

We are researchers in the Center for Advanced Research in Software Engineering at UT Austin. We are interested in understanding software architectural design decision practices in the software industry, especially in geographically separated development contexts.

You are invited to participate in our survey, and your participation in this study is completely voluntary. It will take approximately 5 minutes to complete the survey.

Thank you very much for your time and support! It is very important for us to learn your opinions.

Please start with the survey now by clicking on the Continue button below.
 
 
 
Which best describes your primary work area?
 
Architecture and Design
 
Development
 
Test
 
Build
 
Project Management
 
Documentation
 
Customer Service
 
Other
 
 
 
How many years have you worked in the software industry?
   
 
 
 
What programming languages are you most familiar with? (you can list no more than three)
   
 
 
 
How many years of experience do you have with software architecture and design?
 
No experience
 
1 -5 years
 
6 -10 years
 
11 - 20 years
 
20+ years
 
 
How would you rate the importance of software architecture and design in the entire software development life cycle?
Very important Important Neutral Less important Not at all
Software architecture
Software design
 
 
 
How would you define "architectural design decisions (ADDs)" based on your experience?
   
 
 
 
Do you generally capture/record architectural design decisions (ADDs) in your software product development?
 
Yes
 
No
 
 
 
How often do you capture/record ADDs in your current and previous software projects?
 
Every time
 
Often
 
Occasionally
 
Never
 
 
 
Based on your own experience, what do you see as the advantages of capturing/recording ADDs?
   
 
 
 
Based on your own experience, what kinds of risks would be involved if not capturing ADDs?
   
 
 
 
Do you generally track the changes of architectural design decisions (i.e., the evolutionary history of ADDs) in your software product development?
 
Yes
 
No
 
 
 
How often do you track the changes of ADDs (i.e., the evolutionary history of ADDs) in your current and previous software project?
 
Every time
 
Often
 
Occasionally
 
Never
 
 
 
Based on your own experience, what do you see as the advantages of tracking the changes of ADDs?
   
 
 
 
Based on your own experience, what kinds of risks would be involved if missing the evolutionary history of ADDs?
   
 
 
 
How do you capture/record/track architectural design decisions (ADDs) in your software product development?
 
Using automated tools
 
Both manually and using automated tools
 
Manually
 
Never do this
 
 
For geographically separated software development, i.e., multi-site software product development, how would you rate the importance of capturing/recording/tracking ADDs among different sites?
Very Important Important Neutral Less important Not at all
ADDs management in multi-site contexts
 
 
How strongly do you agree with each of the following statements regarding capturing/recording/tracking ADDs in multi-site software projects?
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
Keeps architectural knowledge consistent among different sites
Reduces costs of coordinations among different sites
Supports product and project training
Supports sharing architectural knowledge
Increases resources from each site
Increases coordination complexity
Helps stakeholders have consistent views
Decreases inconsistent issues during architecture evolution
Simplifies the management of multiple sites
Detracts the main developing and testing tasks
Makes it easier to add new features for global projects
Makes it easier to reuse software architecture and design styles/patterns
 
 
 
If we provide a platform to support ADD documentation and evolution management in multi-site development contexts, how likely would you consider using it?
 
Definitely
 
Most likely
 
Likely
 
Neutral
 
Less likely
 
Not at all
 
 
 
From your experience and perception, what are the benefits, risks, and challenges on managing architectural design decisions in multi-site software development contexts?