Effectively documenting an architecture is as important as crafting it. Drawing on their extensive experience, the authors first help you decide what information to document, and then, with guidelines and examples in various notations, including uml, show you how to express an architecture so that others can successfully build, use, and maintain a system. Oct 06, 2002 since reading a fascinating document titled cmusei2001tn010 documenting software architectures. According to bass et al 1, the software architecture of a system is the structure or structures of the system, which comprise software components, the externally visible properties of. The interfaces of the elements are a critical part of any architecture, and documenting them is an important part of the architects overall documentation obligation. Software architecture design documents include the main architectural decisions which are made by solution architect. End user manuals for the enduser, system administrators and support staff. This report provides guidance for documenting the interfaces to software elements. Pdf documenting software architectures in an agile world. Technical documentation of code, algorithms, interfaces, and apis. Imho uml is not a tool which works well for documenting real world softwares architecture. Everything you wanted to know about interfaces, but were. According to bass et al 1, the software architecture of a system is the structure or structures of the system, which comprise software components, the externally visible properties of those components, and the relationships among them.
One of the project goals was to demonstrate model software architecture documentation, including interfaces. Documenting software architectures however, the treatment of architecture to date has largely concentrated on its design and, to a lesser extent, its validation. The uses of software architecture documentation, including goals and strategies. Architecture must be documented in a good amount of detail and should be presented in an accessible form for many different.
Document these interfaces by documenting the interface type in one place. It prescribes a standard organization template for recording semantic as well as syntactic information about an interface. Templates for capturing and organizing information to generate a coherent package. A template for documenting software and firmware architectures.
It is intended to capture and convey the significant architectural decisions which have been made on the system. Views and beyond covers the software architecture documentation and how to express an architecture so that the developers can design, build and. Oct 05, 2010 documenting software architectures, second edition, provides the most complete and current guidance, independent of language or notation, on how to capture an architecture in a commonly understandable form. Cmusei2002tn015 v abstract this is the fourth in a series of software engineering institute reports on documenting software architectures. Organization of documentation package a year ago and discovering that the approximately 20page document was the basis for a book i have patiently waited, and am delighted with how the book turned out. Documenting software architectures linkedin slideshare. This book, widely referred to as the bible of software architecture documentation understandably because it is a tome, it is huge, covers in detail what can be described as modelling patterns, a topic that is oft not covered in software architecture books. Interface specifications documenting software interfaces. Course billing interface specification, wc93332, 1985, wylie college press.
Software architecture has increasingly become important for the development of complex realtime systems. However, it must be said that uml makes its main contribution in a views primary presentation, and its secondary contribution in the behavior of an element or group of elements. Includes relations to an environment and construction principles to be used in design of software components. Documenting software architectures in an agile world. He works for the sei in the areas of software architecture, serviceoriented architecture, and aspectoriented software development. In this new series, learn why and how you should document software architecture. The interfaces of the elements are critical parts of any architecture, and documenting them is an important responsibility for the architect. Documenting an architecture is a matter of documenting the relevant views, and then adding documentation that applies to more than one view. Documenting software architectures elearning however, the treatment of architecture to date has largely concentrated on its design and, to a lesser extent, its validation.
Mark rendle talks about the various technologies and standards from across the years, the pros and cons of each, and which solutions are appropriate for. When cons idering interfaces, most software engineer s first thi nk. The software architecture section is your big picture view and allows you to present the structure of the software. In recent years a realization has grown of the importance of software architecture. Oct 12, 2009 the software architecture of a program or computing system is the structure or structures of the system, which comprise software elements, the externally visible properties of those elements, and the relationships among them. Use case diagrams are typically too highlevel and miss certain aspects. We dont recommend listing everything, but rather focus on the most relevant and challenging ones.
Our definition of software architecture in chapter 2 made it clear that elements interfaces. Since these reports are snapshots of work in progress, the book may reflect and incorporate various changes in the details, but not in philosophy. You will learn about the five different views, or aspects, that you should document for any medium to largescale software development project. Documenting interfaces cmu sei2002tn015, ada403788. This report details guidance for documenting the interfaces to software elements. Documenting architecture is an important part of software development. Each subsection of section three describes the form and content of a section of an architecture document. Paul clements is a senior member of the technical staff at the carnegie mellon software engineering institute sei, where he has worked since 1994 leading or coleading projects in software productline engineering and software architecture documentation and analysis. This tutorial provides a practical and comprehensive. Similarly, a module may appear in more than one module view.
Specification, representation, description, documentation 10 p. This first article in the series introduces software. An interface is documented with an interface specification. Since reading a fascinating document titled cmusei2001tn010 documenting software architectures. Documenting software architecture, part 3, develop the architecture overview. The structure and content for an architectural description is given insection three of this paper. Here is a starting point, and there are others including arc42. Component interfaces subsystems constraints test scenarios third party component purchasing decisions team structure and schedule dependencies. And documenting the architecture is the crowning step to crafting it. Aug 12, 2019 documenting software architecture when we need to explain to someone else new developer, product owner, investor, how the application works, we need documentation. Documenting software interfaces in this chapter, we look at these aspects of interface. 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.
Given the importance of interfaces, you would think that there is a standard process to indentify and define interfaces, to develop interface requirements, and manage these activities. Structurizr help documentation software architecture. An interface is a boundary across which two independent entities meet and interact or communicate with each other. Standard organization stakeholders conveying syntactic information conveying semantic information examples selection from documenting software architectures. Documenting software architecture 1 2 the code doesnt tell the whole story. Supplementary documentation can be used to describe what you cant get from the code. An interface specification is a statement of what an architect chooses to make known about an element in order for other entities to interact or communicate with it. Class diagrams are useful, but use a level of abstraction which is often too low for this purpose.
Make the scope of the documentation a single software system. This report details guidance for documenting the interfaces to software ele. This is the fourth in a series of sei reports on documenting software architectures. Examples of interface documentation documenting software. In this series, learn why and how you should document software architecture. Navy software engineering demonstration project, called the software cost reduction scr project. Documenting software interfaces and software behavior. Imho uml is not a tool which works well for documenting real world software s architecture. In short, architecture is the conceptual glue that holds every phase of the project together for all of its many stakeholders. This document provides a comprehensive architectural overview of the system, using a number of different architectural views to depict different aspects of the system.
Traditional software architecture documents typically refer to this as a conceptual view or logical view, and there is often confusion about whether such views should refer to implementation details such as technology choices. But what documentation options do we have that can express the whole application building blocks and how it works in this post im going to write about. Our definition of software architecture in chapter 2 made it clear that elements interfacescarriers of the properties externally visible to other elementsare. Documenting software interfaces documenting software. The software architecture of a program or computing system is the structure or structures of the system, which comprise software elements, the externally visible properties of those elements, and the relationships among them. Sometimes, if there is some, its outofdate, inappropriate and basically not very useful.
He applies more than 35 years of experience in computer simulation, software architecture, software product lines, manmachine interface, artificial intelligence, and programming language design to various aspects of applied research and handson customer assistance for large more than three million lines of code software systems. Software architecture patterns present solutions for software architecture. This chapter establishes the information needed to adequately specify an interface and explores the issues associated with doing so. Documenting software architectures, second edition, provides the most complete and current guidance, independent of language or notation, on how to capture an architecture in a commonly understandable form. Documenting software architecture when we need to explain to someone else new developer, product owner, investor, how the application works, we need documentation. Drawing on their extensive experience, the authors first help you decide what information to document, and then, with guidelines and. He is also a practicing software architect in industry. Architectural views and styles, with general introductions and specific examples. Software architecture has become a widely accepted conceptual basis for the development of nontrivial software in all application areas and by organizations of all sizes. Documenting software interfaces in this chapter, we look at these aspects of interface documentation. However, the treatment of architecture to date has largely concentrated on its design and, to a lesser extent, its validation. This software architecture document provides an architectural overview of the. Its common for there to be little or no documentation covering the architecture in many projects.