# Software Architecture in Practice: Challenges and Opportunities

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.09978 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09978/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 19 Aug 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [6GSoft: Software for Edge-to-Cloud Continuum](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.05963/) (2024)
- [MAAD: Automate Software Architecture Design through Knowledge-Driven Multi-Agent Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.21382/) (2025)
- [Reversa: A Reverse Documentation Engineering Framework for Converting Legacy Software into Operational Specifications for AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.18684/) (2026)
- [Embedding Software Intent: Lightweight Java Module Recovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.15980/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Software architecture has been an active research field for nearly four decades, in which previous studies make significant progress such as creating methods and techniques and building tools to support software architecture practice. Despite past efforts, we have little understanding of how practitioners perform software architecture related activities, and what challenges they face. Through interviews with 32 practitioners from 21 organizations across three continents, we identified challenges that practitioners face in software architecture practice during software development and maintenance. We reported on common software architecture activities at software requirements, design, construction and testing, and maintenance stages, as well as corresponding challenges. Our study uncovers that most of these challenges center around management, documentation, tooling and process, and collects recommendations to address these challenges.