A systematic mapping study method for software architecture research with LLM-assisted quality assessment.

Authors

Andrei Olar, Oskar Picus, Laura Cernău, Laura Dioșan, Simona Motogna

Published in

MethodsX. Volume 17. Pages 104113. Epub Aug 27, 2026.

Abstract

This article describes the protocol used to conduct a systematic mapping study (SMS) of software architecture. The presence of architectural and design instruction in primary studies cannot be determined through search and superficial review alone. A principled quality assessment must be conducted to identify studies that are both relevant and of high quality. LLM assistance offers practical means of performing such assessments in a timely and efficient manner. Therefore, our contribution is threefold: • Guidance for the following SMS steps: tooling setup, database search, deduplication and snowballing, primary study selection, quality assessment, and data extraction. • The rationale and methodology to perform quality assessment on primary studies regarding software architecture. • A method of using large language models (LLMs) together with human evaluators is presented. The method is supported by bespoke open-source software.

PMID:
42732311
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Sep 2026.

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