Software architecture description

Software architecture description is the set of practices for expressing, communicating and analysing software architectures (also called architectural rendering), and the result of applying such practices through a work product expressing a software architecture (ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010).

Architecture descriptions (ADs) are also sometimes referred to as architecture representations, architecture specifications or software architecture documentation.

Architecture description defines the practices, techniques and types of representations used by software architects to record a software architecture. Architecture description is largely a modeling activity (Software architectural model). Architecture models can take various forms, including text, informal drawings, diagrams or other formalisms (modeling language). An architecture description will often employ several different model kinds to effectively address a variety of audiences, the stakeholders (such as end users, system owners, software developers, system engineers, program managers) and a variety of architectural concerns (such as functionality, safety, delivery, reliability, scalability).

Often, the models of an architecture description are organized into multiple views of the architecture such that "each [view] addresses specific concerns of interest to different stakeholders of the system". An architecture viewpoint is a way of looking at a system (RM_ODP). Each view in an architecture description should have a viewpoint documenting the concerns and stakeholders it is addressed to, and the model kinds, notations and modeling conventions it utilizes (ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010).

The use of multiple views, while effective for communicating with diverse stakeholders and recording and analyzing diverse concerns, does raise potential problems: since views are typically not independent, the potential for overlap means there may be redundancy or inconsistency between views of a single system. Various mechanisms can be used to define and manage correspondences between views to share detail, to reduce redundancy and to enforce consistency.

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