Re-architecture

I am in need of a word to express to change the design or architecture (of a technical system)

Is re-architect an acceptable word or formulation? Or improved the architecture of xyz a better choice? (though not all re-architecture results in an improved architecture)

Solution 1:

That depends on the scope of the change to the technical system. In software development, for example, if the change is significant enough that the resulting system is different enough from the original, then you are indeed talking about a re-architecture. If, however, the scope of the change is, say, targeted performance improvements, replacing or fixing some faulty subsystems, then you are improving the existing architecture.

Think of the difference between remodeling a house vs rebuilding it.

Solution 2:

When speaking of software, you can use "refactor". It specifically means changing the structure of the code without changing the external behaviour; I'm not sure if that's what you want. It's pretty commonly used.

More generally I think re-architect is an acceptable word, as is restructure.