Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond

P. Clements, F. Bachmann, L. Bass, D. Garlan, J. Ivers, R. Little, R. Nord, and J. Stafford

Addison Wesley, 2003.
2003 Jolt Productivity Award Winner

Online links: Available from Amazon.com

Abstract

For all but the most trivial software systems, you must pay close attention to its architecture—the conceptual glue that holds every phase of a project together for its many stakeholders. Without an architecture that is appropriate for the problem being solved, the project will at the very least stumble along, or most likely, fail. Even with a superb architecture, if it is not well understood and well communicated—in other words, well documented—the project cannot be considered a complete success.Although architecture is now widely recognized as a critical element in software development, there has been little guidance independent of language or notation about how to capture it. Based on the authors' extensive experience, Documenting Software Architecture, helps you to decide what information to document and then, with guidelines and examples (in various notations, including UML), shows you how to express an architecture in a form that everyone can understand. If you go to the trouble to create a strong architecture, you must also be prepared to describe it in enough detail, without ambiguity, and to organize it so that others can quickly find the information they need. As a guide for practitioners, the book covers:Seven rules for sound documentation The uses of software architecture documentation, including goals and strategies Architectural views and styles, with general introductions and specific examples Documenting software interfaces and software behavior Templates for capturing and organizing the information to generate a coherent package"This book is of immense value. It should save you months of trials and errors, lots of undeserved hassle, and many costly mistakes that could potentially jeopardize the whole endeavor. It will become an important reference on the shelf of the software architect."—From the Foreword by Philippe Kruchten, Rational Software Canada.
Keywords
Software architecture, documentation, views, architectural styles


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Last modified: 5/14/2004. For comments and problems, contact able-help@cs.cmu.edu.