It is time to end another season.  At this point, we need to revisit the idea of software architecture deliverables.  In particular, we should spend some time thinking about how we communicate our architecture. Multiple Audiences for Software Architecture Deliverables First and foremost, there are a couple of levels of audiences that your deliverables will need to address.  This situation is always one of the most challenging to handle correctly.  Fortunately, we have other types of documents to learn from.  We can look to similar deliverables like an RFP (or response to an RFP) for a structure and approach that makes sense. A Tiered Response Our prior discussions have covered this sort of “tiered response” or communication.  We can craft... Read more

At some point in your project, architectural documentation becomes an essential piece of the deliverables.  This material is often a set of diagrams and bullet points.  However, there is more that we need to include.  A good set of deliverables will consist of some defense of the decisions made.  While this defense is good for CYA, it is more important when someone needs to consider whether a change is required. Basic Architectural Documentation The typical set of deliverables to achieve this goal covers what direction the implementation team should take.  It is roughly a laundry list of decisions made and enough explanation to act on those.  The result is a summary of the decisions made. That is in contrast to... Read more