The first phase is a meeting to prepare for the actual review. For a software architecture review, this meeting typically takes place between the software architect and the review facilitator. If someone other than the software architect is responsible for the design of the portion of the architecture being reviewed, this person should join the meeting with the review facilitator. The pre-meeting consists of the following steps:
- Identify reviewers
- Prepare the design presentation
- Prepare the seed scenarios
- Prepare for the review meeting
Step 1 – Identify reviewers
In this step in the ARID approach, the software architect and review facilitator meet to identify the group of people who will attend the review meeting. Management may also be involved with this step to help identify available resources.
Step 2 – Prepare the design presentation
During the actual review meeting, the software architect will present the design and any of the relevant documentation related to it. In this step, the software architect gives a preliminary version of the presentation to the review facilitator. This allows the software architect to practice the presentation and receive feedback from the review facilitator that may help to improve the presentation.
Step 3 – Prepare the seed scenarios
In this step of review preparation, the software architect and review facilitator work together to come up with seed scenarios, or a sample set of scenarios that the reviewers can use during the review.
Step 4 – Prepare for the review meeting
This step is used for any other tasks related to the preparation of the review meeting. It can be used to identify the materials that will be distributed to all of the reviewers, such as the architecture documentation, seed scenarios, questionnaires, and review agenda. A date, time, and location for the review meeting must be selected and invitations must be sent out.