Architectural Archipelagos: Technical Debt in Long-Lived Software Research Platforms
Marcelo Schmitt Laser, Duc Minh Le, Joshua Garcia, Nenad Medvidovi\'c
TL;DR
This paper introduces the 'archipelago' model of software evolution in long-lived research platforms, highlighting how architectural islands lead to technical debt and affect maintainability.
Contribution
It presents a novel 'archipelago' model illustrating architectural decay in large academic research software suites.
Findings
Identification of the archipelago model in existing research platforms
Examples demonstrating architectural islands and associated technical debt
Insights into the evolution and maintenance challenges of long-lived research software
Abstract
This paper identifies a model of software evolution that is prevalent in large, long-lived academic research tool suites (3L-ARTS). This model results in an "archipelago" of related but haphazardly organized architectural "islands", and inherently induces technical debt. We illustrate the archipelago model with examples from two 3L-ARTS archipelagos identified in literature.
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