Springer Software Architecture Knowledge Management: Theory and Practice

This book describes knowledge management in software architecture. It presents many approaches that are in use in software companies today, approaches that have been used in other domains, and approaches under development in academia. Review From the reviews: “The theory and practice behind software architectural knowledge management (SAKM) and design decisions are explained in this book. … The book is well organized and well written. Its main contribution revolves around the compilation of bodies of work relevant to the codification, presentation, reuse, and management of architectural knowledge.” (Hassan Reza, ACM Computing Reviews, January, 2010) From the Back Cover A software architecture manifests the major early design decisions, which determine the system’s development, deployment and evolution. Thus, making better architectural decisions is one of the large challenges in software engineering. Software architecture knowledge management is about capturing practical experience and translating it into generalized architectural knowledge, and using this knowledge in the communication with stakeholders during all phases of the software lifecycle. This book presents a concise description of knowledge management in the software architecture discipline. It explains the importance of sound knowledge management practices for improving software architecture processes and products, and makes clear the role of knowledge management in software architecture and software development processes. It presents many approaches that are in use in software companies today, approaches that have been used in other domains, and approaches under development in academia. After an initial introduction by the editors, the contributions are grouped in three parts on "Architecture Knowledge Management", "Strategies and Approaches for Managing Architectural Knowledge", and "Tools and Techniques for Managing Architectural Knowledge". The presentation aims at information technology and software engineering professionals, in particular software architects and software architecture researchers. For the industrial audience, the book gives a broad and concise understanding of the importance of knowledge management for improving software architecture process and building capabilities in designing and evaluating better architectures for their mission- and business-critical systems. For researchers, the book will help to understand the applications of various knowledge management approaches in an industrial setting and to identify research challenges and opportunities. About the Author Muhammad Ali Babar is a Senior Researcher with Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, where he leads projects on Software Architecture Development and Conformance Analysis (SADCA) and Evidential Assessment of Software Technologies (EAST) in software product lines. Previously, he was working as a researcher with National ICT Australia (NICTA), where he carried out research in software architecture design and evaluation, architectural knowledge management, and process improvement. Muhammad also presented tutorials in the area of software architecture knowledge management at various international conferences including ICSE 2009, ICSE 2007, SATURN 2007 and WICSA 2007. His current research interests include software product lines, architecture design and evaluation, architecture knowledge management, and tooling support. Torgeir Dingsøyr is working in software process improvement and knowledge management projects as a senior scientist at SINTEF Information and Communication Technology. He has published more than 50 refereed papers in this field, including articles in IEEE Software, Communications of the ACM, Information and Software Technology and Empirical Software Engineering. His current research interests include software process improvement, agile software development, knowledge management in software en