Abstract Software architecture is what deines a software system to be built. It starts early in the software development life cycle. The software architecture deines the data as well as the components of any software system along with the relation between them. It constitutes the blueprint that directs the development of the computer based software system. Being a critical activity of software development life cycle, any error in the design phase of software development can be critical to an organization dealing with the project and as such requires evaluation process that will not only analyse the architecture for its quality attributes but will beneit the software development organization by minimizing the risks associated with the software system to be built by pinpointing the errors early in the process of development. This paper highlights the architecture evaluation process with some examples of evaluation methods along with related work that has been previously done in the said ield. Keywords: Architecture Analysis, Architecture Trade-off Analysis Method, ARGUS-I, Empirically- based Software Architecture Evaluation, Layered Queuing Networks, Software Architecture Analysis Method, Software Evaluation Methods, Software Quality Attributes Software Architecture Evaluation: An Assessment Shahkar Riyaz Tramboo*, S. M. K. Quadri** * Department of Computer Science, University of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, India. E-mail shahkartramboo@gmail.com ** Department of Computer Science, University of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, India. Article can be accessed online at http://www.publishingindia.com Introducion The foundation of any software is its architecture. The architecture of a computer based system is the irst activity whereby the quality attributes such as security, reliability, usability, modiiability, stability, and real- time performance are addressed (Bahsoon & Emmerich, 2003). The software architecture deines the system as a well-deined structure having subcomponents and their corresponding interconnections. The design activity of architecture relating to computer software is one of the important phases of software development and it represents those decisions on design that are hard to alter. The design of architecture depends on a set of requirements that have been gathered during the requirement phase of software engineering (Mattson, Grahn & Martensson, 2006). The structure of data and program components of a computer based system is deined by the architecture design activity of the software engineering. As deined by Bass (2007), the architecture of a software system is the coniguration or formation, which involves element of a software system, the supericially evident qualities of those components, and the associations amongst them. The design action is the duty of the software designer who considers the appropriate style for the requirements speciied as part of the software requirement and analysis phase. The architectural design activity constitutes an important part of the software development life cycle; any decision made during this phase has a profound effect on the end product as it constitutes the blueprint over which the whole of the system is conceived. The software architectural design provides the big picture of the problem at hand and the various issues associated with it that needs to be addressed. The correct design selected among various alternatives during design phase leads to an end product