Software architecting involves

Software architecting involves the design of a system from multiple viewpoints. The common viewpoints used in software engineering are the technology stack (or physical) view, the object (or data) model, and the use case (or behavioral) view. These viewpoints are useful and necessary because they capture many types of design decisions and represent many system qualities such as functionality, information, and physical construction. They do not represent many other important system quality attributes such as modifiability, buildability, security, reliability, and performance, nor do they represent non-operational or business-oriented qualities such as the ability to reduce development and maintenance costs.

The problem with representing an architecture with this single technology-focused view is that we only see a vertical slice through a multidimensional system. Many architectural decisions cannot be represented in this view. If this is the only view we create, then we will probably neglect the other views to the detriment of the system itself.

There are a couple of philosophies concerning how to improve the software crisis. One approach is to improve the quality of the software development process. In this school of thought, quality can be improved by using iterative development techniques, rapid application development (RAD) tools, frequent integration and testing, and keeping careful records so that an organization can build up historical data that will aid in improving the process in future product cycles. It uses iterative/increment development processes like the Rational Unified Process and the Capability Maturity Model (CMM). Another approach for improving software quality is to stay away from the heavyweight planning-oriented processes and instead adopt agile processes and use of techniques such as RAD and eXtreme Programming (XP).