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
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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.
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