We examine how the architecture of products relates to their quality. Using an architectural representation that accounts for both the hierarchical and dependency relationships between modules and components, we define a new construct, system cyclicality. System cyclicality recognizes component...

This paper examines the impact of architectural decisions on the level of defects in a product. We view products as collections of components linked together to work as an integrated whole. Previous work has established modularity (how decoupled a component is from other product components) as a...