Skip to main content

Software Architecture Documentation for Developers: A Survey

  • Conference paper
Software Architecture (ECSA 2013)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 7957))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Software architecture has become an established discipline in industry. Nevertheless, the available documentation of architecture is often not perceived as adequate by developers. As a foundation for the improvement of methods and tools around architecture documentation, we conducted a survey with 147 industrial participants, investigating their current problems and wishes for the future. Participants from different countries in Europe, Asia, North and South America shared their experiences. This paper presents the results of the survey. The results confirmed the common belief that architecture documentation is most frequently outdated and inconsistent and backed it up with data. Further, developers perceive difficulties with a “one-size-fits-all” architecture documentation, which does not adequately provide information for their specific task and context. Developers seek for more interactive ways of working with architecture documentation that allow finding needed information more easily with extended navigation and search possibilities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Perry, D.E., Wolf, A.L.: Foundations for the study of software architecture. ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes 17, 40–52 (1992)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Knodel, J.: Sustainable Structures in Software Implementations by Live Compliance Checking. Fraunhofer Verlag (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Basili, V.R., Rombach, H.D.: The TAME project: towards improvement-oriented software environments. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 14, 758–773 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Lethbridge, T.C., Singer, J., Forward, A.: How software engineers use documentation: the state of the practice. IEEE Software 20, 35–39 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Koning, H., van Vliet, H.: Real-life IT architecture design reports and their relation to IEEE Std 1471 stakeholders and concerns. Automated Software Engg. 13, 201–223 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Malavolta, I., Lago, P., Muccini, H., Pelliccione, P., Tang, A.: What Industry Needs from Architectural Languages: A Survey (2012), http://www.computer.org/csdl/trans/ts/preprint/tts2012990044-abs.html

  7. Bass, L., Clements, P., Kazman, R.: Software Architecture in Practice. Addison-Wesley Professional (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Rozanski, N., Woods, E.: Software Systems Architecture: Working With Stakeholders Using Viewpoints and Perspectives. Addison-Wesley Professional (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  9. International Organization of Standardization: ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011 - Systems and software engineering – Architecture description (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Kruchten, P.: The 4+1 View Model of Architecture. IEEE Software 12, 42–50 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Hofmeister, C., Nord, R., Soni, D.: Applied Software Architecture. Addison-Wesley Professional (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Clements, P., Bachmann, F., Bass, L., Garlan, D., Ivers, J., Little, R., Merson, P., Nord, R., Stafford, J.: Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond. Addison-Wesley Professional (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Garlan, D., Monroe, R.T., Wile, D.: Acme: architectural description of component-based systems. In: Foundations of Component-based Systems, pp. 47–67 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Feiler, P., Gluch, D., Hudak, J.: The Architecture Analysis & Design Language (AADL): An Introduction (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  15. OMG: UML Superstructure Specification 2.4.1 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Sparx Systems: Enterprise Architect, http://www.sparxsystems.com/

  17. Farenhorst, R., De Boer, R.C.: Knowledge Management in Software Architecture: State of the Art. In: Ali Babar, M., Dingsøyr, T., Lago, P., van Vliet, H. (eds.) Software Architecture Knowledge Management, pp. 21–38. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Farenhorst, R., Izaks, R., Lago, P., van Vliet, H.: A Just-In-Time Architectural Knowledge Sharing Portal. In: Seventh Working IEEE/IFIP Conference on Software Architecture (WICSA 2008), pp. 125–134. IEEE (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Babar, M.A., Gorton, I.: A Tool for Managing Software Architecture Knowledge. In: SHARK/ADI 2007: ICSE Workshops 2007 Second Workshop on Sharing and Reusing Architectural Knowledge - Architecture, Rationale, and Design Intent, p. 11. IEEE (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Pohl, K., Sikora, E.: COSMOD-RE: Supporting the Co-Design of Requirements and Architectural Artifacts. In: 15th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE 2007), pp. 258–261. IEEE (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Babu, T.L., Seetha Ramaiah, M., Prabhakar, T.V., Rambabu, D.: ArchVoc–Towards an Ontology for Software Architecture. In: Second Workshop on Sharing and Reusing Architectural Knowledge - Architecture, Rationale, and Design Intent, SHARK/ADI 2007: ICSE Workshops 2007, p. 5. IEEE (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Tang, A., Liang, P., van Vliet, H.: Software Architecture Documentation: The Road Ahead. In: 2011 Ninth Working IEEE/IFIP Conference on Software Architecture, pp. 252–255. IEEE (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Rost, D.: Generation of task-specific architecture documentation for developers. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Doctoral Symposium on Components and Architecture - WCOP 2012, p. 1. ACM Press, New York (2012)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Rost, D., Naab, M., Lima, C., von Flach Garcia Chavez, C. (2013). Software Architecture Documentation for Developers: A Survey. In: Drira, K. (eds) Software Architecture. ECSA 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7957. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39031-9_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39031-9_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39030-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39031-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics