6.2 Purpose of Architecture Representation

Architecture is used for three purposes, and each places requirements on the representation.

1. Architecture serves as a means of education. Architecture representation communicates the architecture to those who are unfamiliar with it. For example, new members of the development team need to be educated about the system, its state, and their role in its development. An architecture representation can communicate what the system does, how the system interacts with its environment, the major components of the system, the portion on which the new team member will be working, and how this portion interacts with the other portions. Architecture representations also present design options. The use of patterns as software design elements has grown dramatically. Some of these patterns are most easily communicated through architectural representations.

2. Architecture serves a primary role as a communication vehicle for stakeholders. This communication can occur vertically through the development organization's management chain, laterally within the development organization, and between the development organization and external stakeholders.

3. Architecture serves as the basis for system analysis. Analysis can be preformed during all phases of a development effort. Because it is an early artifact that represents the system, the architecture plays a key role in all these analyses. When determining how the functional and quality requirements are going to be met, the system developers usually have only the architecture as an artifact. During testing, the architecture defines the units and the aggregates to be tested .