design vs. architecture under software architecture for additional criteria of architectural significance. Elicitation Like all non-functional requirements and quality attribute requirements, architecturally significant requirements should be specified in a SMART way. Quality attribute scenarios are one way to achieve the S (specific) and the M (measured) criteria in SMART. The Software Engineering Institute recommends Quality Attribute Workshops for this effort. It has been suggested to keep architecture analysis and design lightweight and flexible; quality attribute trees for certain application genres and technology domains can support such approaches. It is important to communicate the elicited architecturally significant requirements, and any other architectural artifacts, in a notation and language that is comprehensible for the target audience (in particular, business stakeholders). Impact Architecturally significant requirements are used in software design to drive and justify architectural decisions; if not satisfied properly, they contribute to the accumulation of technical debt. For instance, failure to meet security and compliance requirements complicates the system and process assurance audits and increases the risk of audit findings. Exemplary advice on how to address system quality attributes (including architecturally significant requirements) is available in the literature. See also Architectural decision Architectural pattern Attribute-driven design List of system quality attributes Non-functional requirement Requirements engineering Software architecture Solution architecture Systems architecture References Software architecture