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Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Behavior

Technical Note
This report describes ways to document the behavior of systems, subsystems, and components of software architecture.
Publisher

Software Engineering Institute

CMU/SEI Report Number
CMU/SEI-2002-TN-001

Abstract

This report represents another milestone of a work in progress: a comprehensive handbook on how to produce high-quality documentation for software architectures. The handbook, tentatively titled Documenting Software Architectures, will be published in early 2002 by Addison-Wesley as part of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Series on Software Engineering.  

The book is intended to address a lack of language-independent guidance about how to capture an architecture in a written form that can provide a unified design vision to all of the stakeholders on a development project.  

A central precept of the book is that documenting an architecture entails two essential steps: (1) documenting the set of relevant views of that architecture, and then completing the picture by (2) documenting information that transcends any single view. The books audience is the community of practicing architects, apprentice architects, and developers who receive architectural documentation.  

This technical note describes ways to document an important but often overlooked aspect of software architecture: the behavior of systems, subsystems, and components.

Cite This Technical Note

Bachmann, F., Bass, L., Clements, P., Garlan, D., Ivers, J., Little, R., Nord, R., & Stafford, J. (2002, January 1). Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Behavior. (Technical Note CMU/SEI-2002-TN-001). Retrieved March 28, 2024, from https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/library/documenting-software-architecture-documenting-behavior/.

@techreport{bachmann_2002,
author={Bachmann, Felix and Bass, Len and Clements, Paul and Garlan, David and Ivers, James and Little, Reed and Nord, Robert and Stafford, Judith},
title={Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Behavior},
month={Jan},
year={2002},
number={CMU/SEI-2002-TN-001},
howpublished={Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute's Digital Library},
url={https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/library/documenting-software-architecture-documenting-behavior/},
note={Accessed: 2024-Mar-28}
}

Bachmann, Felix, Len Bass, Paul Clements, David Garlan, James Ivers, Reed Little, Robert Nord, and Judith Stafford. "Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Behavior." (CMU/SEI-2002-TN-001). Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute's Digital Library. Software Engineering Institute, January 1, 2002. https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/library/documenting-software-architecture-documenting-behavior/.

F. Bachmann, L. Bass, P. Clements, D. Garlan, J. Ivers, R. Little, R. Nord, and J. Stafford, "Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Behavior," Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute's Digital Library. Software Engineering Institute, Technical Note CMU/SEI-2002-TN-001, 1-Jan-2002 [Online]. Available: https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/library/documenting-software-architecture-documenting-behavior/. [Accessed: 28-Mar-2024].

Bachmann, Felix, Len Bass, Paul Clements, David Garlan, James Ivers, Reed Little, Robert Nord, and Judith Stafford. "Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Behavior." (Technical Note CMU/SEI-2002-TN-001). Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute's Digital Library, Software Engineering Institute, 1 Jan. 2002. https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/library/documenting-software-architecture-documenting-behavior/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Bachmann, Felix; Bass, Len; Clements, Paul; Garlan, David; Ivers, James; Little, Reed; Nord, Robert; & Stafford, Judith. Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Behavior. CMU/SEI-2002-TN-001. Software Engineering Institute. 2002. https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/library/documenting-software-architecture-documenting-behavior/