This retrospective on nearly two decades of software architecture research examines the maturation of the software architecture research area by tracing the evolution of research questions and results through their maturation cycle. We show how early qualitative results set the stage for later precision, formality, and automation, how results have built up over time, and how the research results have moved into practice.

Preferred citation: Mary Shaw and Paul Clements. The Golden Age of Software Architecture: A Comprehensive Survey, Technical Report CMU-ISRI-06-101, Carnegie Mellon University, Institute for Software Research International, March 2006

A shorter version of this report, "The Golden Age of Software Architecture", appeared in IEEE Software, vol 23, no 2, March/April 2006, pp. 31-39.