A framework for building non-functional software architectures

requirements ( NFRs ) are rarely taken in ac- count in most software development processes. There exist reasons that can help us to understand why these require- ments are not explicitly dealt with: their complexity,their usually informal statement,their high abstraction level,as well as the rare support of languages,methodologies and tools for them. In this paper,we introduce a framework for explicitly dealing with NFRs in the software development process. This framework addresses the description,integra- tion with functional requirements,refinement and mapping of NFRs into actual implementation elements.