Rationale visualization of software architectural design decision using compendium

Abstract

The justification for software architectural design decisions made throughout the architecting process is necessary for understanding, (re)using, communicating, and modifying an architecture design. Although there are many existing tools to capture, store, manage, and share the architectural design decisions explicitly, there still remains a need to visualize and explore architectural design decisions and their underlying rationale. This paper investigates how Compendium tool can be employed to visualize architectural design decisions and their rationale, in order to improve the understandability and promote the communication of architectural design decisions. © 2010 ACM.