Software Architecture Recovery
Nothing is lost forever when using Axivion Architecture Verification to recover the architecture. It allows you to understand the current status of a software project and identify any issues there may be.
If you are struggling with understanding your software architecture, let us know.
Why You Need Architecture Recovery
There are various reasons why you might not have a clear overview of the architecture of your software. It might be that over the years different people updated different parts of the documentation and now you do not have a clear picture of what your architecture looks like. Or, the project started so small that documenting the architecture was not seen as a priority. But after adding several new features, it has become difficult to understand the software - especially for new people joining the team.
Most often, however, architecture recovery is needed when embedding code from 3rd parties, but never received the required documentation. However, to use this code efficiently, it is important to understand how the software was designed and how the different parts relate to each other. This is where architecture recovery can ensure you are able to develop your software in future.
Redocumentation of software architecture
- Create documentation for your software project
- Do this for a live project or as post-project analysis
- Use exiting documentation as a basis or start from scratch
Recovering Your Architecture with Existing Documentation
Even if architectural sketches may have existed at the beginning of a project, they might not have been maintained. New requirements and maintenance tasks diluted the original architecture and it has not been consistently reviewed.
Nevertheless, some idea of a basic architecture still exists and rudimentary fragments are still available. From these fragments and assumptions the architectural hypothesis is now put forward. This initial hypothesis is validated by comparing it with the implementation and deviations are resolved in an iterative process. This process is technically based on the architecture review of the Axivion Architecture Verification.
Creating Your Documentation from Scratch
Even if there is no proper documentation available, you will have a vague idea or even just an assumption of what the architecture looks like. You can use the integrated Axivion editor to create architectural sketches, which can then be directly and interactively mapped to the actual implementation, then checked and then adapted based on the insights gained. These steps can be iterated until the intended architecture is established as a basis for further development.
We call this Architecture Archaeology. This might take a bit longer than importing exiting fragments of an architecture as a starting point, but the result is the same: At the end of the process, a validated architecture is available again, which enables entry into the process of continuous architecture verification.
Recover Your Software Architecture
Contact us to learn more or to schedule an appointment for a demo.
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