Software architecture—the conceptual glue that holds every phase of a project together for its many stakeholders—is widely recognized as a critical element in modern software development. Practitioners have increasingly discovered that close attention to a software system’s architecture pays valuable dividends. Without an architecture that is appropriate for the problem being solved, a project will stumble along or, most likely, fail. Even with a superb architecture, if that architecture is not well understood or well communicated the project is unlikely to succeed.   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. 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 from it. The book features rules for sound documentation, the goals and strategies of documentation, architectural views and styles, documentation for software interfaces and software behavior, and templates for capturing and organizing information to generate a coherent package. New and improved in this second edition: Coverage of architectural styles such as service-oriented architectures, multi-tier architectures, and data models Guidance for documentation in an Agile development environment Deeper treatment of documentation of rationale, reflecting best industrial practices Improved templates, reflecting years of use and feedback, and more documentation layout options A new, comprehensive example (available online), featuring documentation of a Web-based service-oriented system Reference guides for three important architecture documentation languages: UML, AADL, and SySML

Table of Contents:
About the Cover xxi Foreword to the Second Edition xxiii Foreword to the First Edition xxv Preface xxix Acknowledgments xxxiii Reader’s Guide xxxv Prologue: Software Architectures and Documentation 1 P.1: A Short Overview of Software Architecture 1 P.2: A Short Overview of Architecture Documentation 9 P.3: Architecture Views 22 P.4: Architecture Styles 25 P.5: Seven Rules for Sound Documentation 36 P.6: Summary Checklist 45 P.7: Discussion Questions 46 P.8: For Further Reading 47 Part I: A Collection of Software Architecture Styles 49 I.1: Three Categories of Styles 49 I.2: Style Guides: A Standard Organization for Explaining a Style 50 I.3: Choosing Which Element and Relation Properties to Document 52 I.4: Notations for Architecture Views 53 I.5: Examples 54 Chapter 1: Module Views 55 1.1: Overview 55 1.2: Elements, Relations, and Properties of Module Views 56 1.3: What Module Views Are For 59 1.4: Notations for Module Views 60 1.5: Relation to Other Views 63 1.6: Summary Checklist 63 1.7: Discussion Questions 64 1.8: For Further Reading 64 Chapter 2: A Tour of Some Module Styles 65 2.1: Decomposition Style 65 2.2: Uses Style 74 2.3: Generalization Style 82 2.4: Layered Style 87 2.5: Aspects Style 104 2.6: Data Model 109 2.7: Summary Checklist 120 2.8: Discussion Questions 120 2.9: For Further Reading 121 Chapter 3: Component-and-Connector Views 123 3.1: Overview 123 3.2: Elements, Relations, and Properties of C&C Views 126 3.3: What C&C Views Are For 136 3.4: Notations for C&C Views 139 3.5: Relation to Other Kinds of Views 148 3.6: Summary Checklist 150 3.7: Discussion Questions 151 3.8: For Further Reading 152 Chapter 4: A Tour of Some Component-and-Connector Styles 155 4.1: An Introduction to C&C Styles 155 4.2: Data Flow Styles 157 4.3: Call-Return Styles 161 4.4: Event-Based Styles 172 4.5: Repository Styles 178 4.6: Crosscutting Issues for C&C Styles 182 4.7: Summary Checklist 185 4.8: Discussion Questions 186 4.9: For Further Reading 187 Chapter 5: Allocation Views and a Tour of Some Allocation Styles 189 5.1: Overview 189 5.2: Deployment Style 191 5.3: Install Style 198 5.4: Work Assignment Style 202 5.5: Other Allocation Styles 206 5.6: Summary Checklist 213 5.7: Discussion Questions 213 5.8: For Further Reading 214 Part II: Beyond Structure: Completing the Documentation 215 Chapter 6: Beyond the Basics 217 6.1: Refinement 218 6.2: Descriptive Completeness 222 6.3: Documenting Context Diagrams 225 6.4: Documenting Variation Points 231 6.5: Documenting Architectural Decisions 239 6.6: Combining Views 250 6.7: Summary Checklist 258 6.8: Discussion Questions 259 6.9: For Further Reading 260 Chapter 7: Documenting Software Interfaces 261 7.1: Overview 261 7.2: Interface Documentation 265 7.3: A Standard Organization for Interface Documentation 271 7.4: Stakeholders of Interface Documentation 278 7.5: Conveying Syntactic Information 279 7.6: Conveying Semantic Information 280 7.7: Examples of Interface Documentation 281 7.8: Summary Checklist 285 7.9: Discussion Questions 286 7.10: For Further Reading 286 Chapter 8: Documenting Behavior 289 8.1: Beyond Structure 289 8.2: How to Document Behavior 290 8.3: Notations for Documenting Behavior 295 8.4: Where to Document Behavior 306 8.5: Why to Document Behavior 306 8.6: Summary Checklist 308 8.7: Discussion Questions 309 8.8: For Further Reading 311 Part III: Building the Architecture Documentation 313 Chapter 9: Choosing the Views 315 9.1: Stakeholders and Their Documentation Needs 316 9.2: A Method for Choosing the Views 326 9.3: Example 329 9.4: Summary Checklist 335 9.5: Discussion Questions 335 9.6: For Further Reading 335 Chapter 10: Building the Documentation Package 337 10.1: Documenting a View 337 10.2: Documentation Beyond Views 350 10.3: Documenting a Mapping to Requirements 357 10.4: Packaging the Architecture Documentation 362 10.5: Summary Checklist 372 10.6: For Further Reading 373 Chapter 11: Reviewing an Architecture Document 375 11.1: Steps of the Procedure 376 11.2: Sample Question Sets for Reviewing the Architecture Document 382 11.3: An Example of Constructing and Conducting a Review 393 11.4: Summary Checklist 395 11.5: Discussion Questions 396 11.6: For Further Reading 396 Epilogue: Using Views and Beyond with Other Approaches 399 E.1: ISO/IEC 42010, née ANSI/IEEE Std 1471-2000 400 E.2: Rational Unified Process/Kruchten 4+1 406 E.3: Using the Rozanski and Woods Viewpoint Set 408 E.4: Documenting Architecture in an Agile Development Project 414 E.5: U.S. Department of Defense Architecture Framework 419 E.6: Where Architecture Documentation Ends 428 E.7: A Final Word 429 E.8: For Further Reading 429 Appendix A: UML—Unified Modeling Language 431 A.1: Introduction 431 A.2: Documenting a Module View 433 A.3: Documenting a Component-and-Connector View 438 A.4: Documenting an Allocation View 443 A.5: Documenting Behavior 449 A.6: Documenting Interfaces 460 Appendix B: SysML—Systems Modeling Language 465 B.1: Architecture Documentation 466 B.2: Requirements 466 B.3: Documenting a Module View 468 B.4: Documenting a Component-and-Connector View 469 B.5: Documenting an Allocation View 470 B.6: Documenting Behavior 471 B.7: Documenting Interfaces 472 B.8: Summary 472 Appendix C: AADL—The SAE Architecture Analysis and Design Language 473 C.1: Introduction 473 C.2: Documenting a Module Style 475 C.3: Documenting a Component-and-Connector View 478 C.4: Documenting a Deployment View 481 C.5: Documenting Behavior 482 C.6: Documenting Interfaces 484 C.7: Summary 484 Acronyms 487 Glossary 491 References 497 About the Authors 509 About the Contributors 513 Index 517