ICSA 2025 - Architecture as Code

Abstract After more than thirty-five years of research and development in software architecture, several fundamental challenges remain unsolved. First, despite the importance of having a well-defined architecture description aligned with the system, inconsistencies and misalignments are still prevalent. Second, although numerous languages exist to describe architectures, none have achieved widespread use or recognition as a de facto standard. Third, while architecture is dynamic and evolving, with architectural decisions often made by non-architect stakeholders, there are no universally accepted methodologies to capture emergent aspects and incorporate them into the architecture. In this paper, we explore the emerging concept of architecture as code. Inspired by the success of infrastructure as code, which enables infrastructure management in a codified, automated, and repeatable manner, architecture as code aims to bring similar benefits to software architecture. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first scientific paper to study this concept in depth within the context of software architecture, providing a comprehensive description and analysis of its characteristics. We also investigate how architecture as code is implemented and applied in practice. Replication packageThe public repository contains a replication package about combining complementary methods, including a systematic literature review (SLR) [1], a gray literature review [2], and a use case analysis [3]. In particular, folder structure is as follows: - the folder `Primary studies` contains the pdf of the final 30 studies. The other four studies, i.e., n. 22, 31, 32, and 33 are YouTube videos. Therefore, they are not present in the folder.- the folder `Results from the Google search` includes the two-page results from the Google search.- the Excel file `Search and extraction.xlsx` contains nine worksheets. The first eight worksheets refer to the results of each step related to the research methodology (see Figure 1 in the paper). The latest two worksheets are the outcome of the use case analysis, which is then used in the paper. ## References1. B. Kitchenham and P. Brereton, "A systematic review of systematic review process research in software engineering" Information and software technology, 2013.2. V. Garousi, M. Felderer, and M. V. Mantyla, "Guidelines for including grey literature and conducting multivocal literature reviews in software engineering", Information and Software Technology, vol. 106, pp. 101–121, 2019.3. I. Jacobson, "Use cases–yesterday, today, and tomorrow" Software & systems modeling, vol. 3, pp. 210–220, 2004.