It is demonstrated that multiple architectural views, continuous monitoring, domain-driven decomposition, and AI-assisted design techniques contribute significantly to improving scalability, maintainability, adaptability, and long-term software sustainability.
Abstract
Software architecture has evolved considerably in response to the increasing complexity of modern software systems, particularly those based on cloud computing, microservices, artificial intelligence (AI), and distributed computing environments. This literature review synthesizes recent studies published between 2024 and 2025 to examine emerging trends, challenges, and future directions in software design and architecture. The review adopts a thematic synthesis approach to analyse contemporary research across five major areas: architectural modelling and representation, software quality attributes and self-adaptive architectures, architectural evolution and complexity management, artificial intelligence-assisted architectural decision-making, and existing research gaps. The findings indicate that modern software architecture extends beyond traditional structural design to support continuous architectural governance, stakeholder communication, runtime observability, resilience, and intelligent decision support throughout the software lifecycle. Furthermore, the reviewed studies demonstrate that multiple architectural views, continuous monitoring, domain-driven decomposition, and AI-assisted design techniques contribute significantly to improving scalability, maintainability, adaptability, and long-term software sustainability. Despite these advances, several research gaps remain, including limited empirical validation of proposed approaches, insufficient integration of security and privacy into architectural decision-making, inadequate exploration of emerging paradigms such as edge and serverless computing, and the absence of standardized frameworks for trustworthy AI-assisted architecture.
It was concluded that Clean Architecture cannot be viewed solely as an ally or a villain, as its effectiveness depends on project characteristics, team experience, and the proportionate application of its principles.
Microservice architecture (MSA) has emerged as a dominant paradigm for designing and deploying distributed software systems, offering granular scalability, independent deployability, and technological heterogeneity at the cost of substantially increased operational complexity. Despite its widespread industry adoption, a coherent formal analytical basis and a generalisable evaluation framework for guiding MSA adoption decisions remain underdeveloped in the academic literature. This review synthesises scholarly research published between 2014 and April 2026 to examine the foundational concepts underpinning MSA, the enabling technologies that make it tractable in practice, and the formal analysis and quality assessment approaches proposed to guide architectural decision-making. The key technologies reviewed include containerisation, container orchestration, service mesh frameworks, application programming interface gateways, event-driven messaging systems, and distributed observability tooling. The review further examines migration strategies from monolithic systems, decomposition methodologies grounded in domain-driven design, and the application of formal verification methods to distributed service systems. A multi-dimensional evaluation framework is proposed, integrating organisational readiness, technical capability, security posture, and quality attribute trade-off analysis to support structured MSA adoption decisions. The review identifies significant gaps regarding standardised readiness assessment tools, empirically validated decomposition criteria, and formal methods applicable at the architectural level — gaps that point towards a pressing need for integrated, evidence-based frameworks capable of guiding practitioners through the complex socio-technical challenges of MSA adoption.
Philomène Mbala Ilunga, Camile Likotelo Binene, Papy Kabadi Lelo Odimba et al.· Asian Journal of Research in...· 0 citations
Energy consumption and climate change have made sustainability critical in Software Engineering (SE), driving the emergence of Green SE. Over the past 15 years, numerous solutions for sustainable software systems have been published by the SE community, offering a rich resource for analyzing the field's evolution. To explore this, we conducted a systematic mapping study of Green SE research published between 2010 and 2024. We collected 390 publications, categorizing them by application domain (e.g., mobile, cloud, AI) and research type (e.g., optimisation study, benchmarking, literature review Additionally, we analyzed a representative subset of 79 papers to classify the key elements-such as hardware, measurement, stability, and replicability-considered during energy measurement experiments. Our findings indicate that SE conferences host the majority of energy-related literature. Notably, Green SE studies surged in popularity starting in 2023, largely driven by AI-related publications. Optimization and benchmarking emerged as the most prevalent research types. Ultimately, we aim to inform the SE community about current approaches to energy concerns, highlight critical experimental practices, and advocate for continued action toward more sustainable software engineering.
Max Hort, Maria Kechagia, Federica Sarro· 0 citations
The article examines the role of the SOLID principles in ensuring the quality of software architecture and the manageability of its evolution under continuously changing requirements. The influence of object-oriented design principles on the level of coupling and cohesion of software components is considered, as well as their interrelation with architectural approaches and design patterns. An analysis of various types of coupling encountered in modern software systems is performed, including structural, conceptual, and evolutionary coupling. Special attention is paid to the practical aspects of applying the SRP, OCP, LSP, ISP, and DIP principles, as well as to the risks arising from their formal or excessive use. It is shown that the effectiveness of architectural decisions is determined not only by compliance with design principles but also by the use of objective quality evaluation criteria based on metrics of coupling, cohesion, and code complexity. The possibilities of applying hexagonal architecture, contract testing, and dependency inversion mechanisms to improve the maintainability of software systems are considered. Based on the research results, a practical approach to using the SOLID principles as a system of engineering constraints is proposed, which ensures sustainable development of a software product and reduces architectural risks throughout its life cycle.
Milana S. Shapieva, Muhammad A. Agamirzaev· EKONOMIKA I UPRAVLENIE: PROB...· 0 citations
The article is dedicated to examining how contemporary design systems support the scalability of digital products through architectural principles, tokenization practices, and component modeling. The relevance of the study stems from the rapid expansion of multi-platform ecosystems, where fragmented interfaces undermine product coherence and increase development overhead. The novelty lies in treating the design system not as a static guideline set but as an evolving architectural structure that shapes consistency through modular organization, semantic token frameworks, and stable component hierarchies. The work describes the interplay between these elements and studies how they collectively sustain visual and behavioral alignment across distributed teams. Special attention is paid to the role of system governance, bottom-up evolution, and design-to-code convergence. The work sets itself a goal of identifying mechanisms through which design systems maintain cohesion as products and teams scale. To achieve this, analytical and comparative methods are applied. The conclusion describes the stabilizing effect of unified design architectures and their value for long-term product development. The article will be useful for researchers, UX architects, product designers, and engineering teams involved in large-scale digital systems.
Volkodav Vladyslav· Universal Library of Innovat...· 0 citations
