Architecture:

a system description, including system components and how they interact.

Design decision:

An explicit refinement of a program design. Each decision reflects the elaboration of a design or programming plan into a more concrete realization.

Reengineering:

The examination and modification of a system to reconstitute it in a new form and the subsequent re-implementation of the new form. ²

The examination and alteration of an existing subject system to reconstitute it in a new form. This process encompasses a combination of sub-processes such as reverse engineering, restructuring, re-documentation, forward engineering and re-targeting. ³

Also known as renovation and reclamation. It is the examination and alteration of a subject system to reconstitute it in a new form and the subsequent implementation of the new form. [chikofsky]

Reengineering is the systematic transformation of an existing system into a new form to realise quality improvements in operation, system capability, functionality, performance or evolvability at a lower cost, schedule or risk to the customer. Reengineering also emphases the importance of a greater return on investment than could be achieved through a new development effort. ⁴

Reverse engineering:

"the process of analyzing a subject system to identify the system's components and their interrelationships and create representations of the system in another form or at a higher level of abstraction." ¹

Reverse engineering is usually undertaken in order to redesign the system for better maintainability or to produce a copy of a system without access to the design from which it was originally produced. ²

References:

1. [chikofsky and Cross] Eliot J Chikofsky & James H Cross. Reverse engineering and design recovery: A taxonomy. IEEE Software, 7(1):13-17, January 1990.
2. [foldoc] The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, London UK, http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foldoc
3. [jlccrm] Reengineering Definitions of the Joint Logistic Commanders Computer Resources Management group, http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/~red/defin.html
4. [sei] Perspectives on legacy system reengineering. Reengineering centre, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 1995.

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