Software Systems Architecture

Resources

Click here to download our Quick reference Card or Architecture Description template.

Architecture Training

Wirfs-Brock Associates invented the popular development approach called Responsibility-Driven Design. They offer on-site, public, and custom training in object and agile design, architecture, writing use cases, and communication. Each course presents practical tips and techniques they have gained from many years of software development and design experience.

They now provide a course, Developing and Communicating Software Architecture, which is based on our book. As their website explains:

This course, based on the book Software Systems Architecture: Working with Stakeholders Using Viewpoints and Perspectives, provides software architects with skills and knowledge that enable them to prepare, present, and explain their architectures to diverse stakeholders interested in understanding and evaluating their architecture. It is also suited for developers, product managers, developers, quality assurance, and other stakeholders who need to understand how to express their concerns and see that they are represented in a system’s architecture…
Students learn by doing. There is ample class-time opportunity to explore concepts and techniques and develop skills. The class is roughly half lecture and half short exercises, discussions, and in-depth labs… In addition to the course text, each student will receive a 90 page course guidebook developed by Wirfs-Brock Associates.

We are delighted that Rebecca Wirfs-Brock and her colleagues have chosen to base their course on our approach and content. Completion of the course will give you a solid grounding in our key concepts,and more importantly, how to apply these in real-world situations.

For more information visit the website or contact Rebecca at training (at) wirfs-brock.com.

Articles and Papers

Description Links

Applying Views and Viewpoints to Software Architecture

A whitepaper written for the Open University for use on their industrial MSc programme.

Experiences Using Viewpoints for Information Systems Architecture: An Industrial Experience Report

A refereed and published paper, written for the EWSA2004 software architecture workshop. This paper is referenced from the book and from the previous whitepaper. There is an associated presentation from the workshop listed below.

Using Architectural Perspectives

A refereed and published paper, written for the WICSA 2005 software architecture conference. This paper provides a formal self-contained definition of the concept of architectural perspectives. The official citation can be found here.

Templates and Reference Material

Description Links

Quick Reference Card

This summarises all of our viewpoints and perspectives in an easily accessible form.

Architectural Description Document Template

This provides a suggested structure for ADs when viewpoints and perspectives are used to drive the architectural definition process. We have produced versions in PDF and Word format.

Presentations

Description Links

SPA2008: Sold! How to Describe, Explain and Justify your Architecture

The presentation slides from a session that we ran with Andy Longshaw at SPA2008 in March 2008, exploring what should appear in an architectural description and why. The outputs of the session are also available here.

EAC2007: Agile Architecture

The presentation slides from a talk that Eoin gave at the EAC2007 event in June 2007 explaining how architects can work in an agile manner and work effectively with agile development teams.

CG2007 Workshop Slides

The presentation slides from a workshop that we gave at the CG2007 event in May 2007. The aim of the workshop was to see if we could design a workable DSL for describing the architecture of large information systems. We didn’t get as far as designing a DSL (which was to be expected in a couple of hours) but we did get some interesting ideas from the participants. Thanks to all who attended.

OOPSLA 2006 T05 Tutorial Slides

The presentation slides from a half day tutorial that Eoin gave at the OOPSLA2006 event in October 2006.

CIO Summit: Maintaining & Increasing Stakeholder Confidence in IT Architecture

The presentation slides from a 45 minute talk that Eoin gave at the CIO Summit event in September 2005.

SPA-191 Talk: Software Architecture Using Viewpoints and Perspectives

The presentation slides from a 90 minute talk we gave at a BCS SPA Specialist Group   evening meeting  on 6th July 2005, at LogicaCMG’s Great Marlborough Street offices in London.

Experiences Using Viewpoints for Information Systems Architecture: An Industrial Experience Report

A presentation from the EWSA2004 software architecture workshop. Supports the paper of the same title listed above.

Software Architecture Using Viewpoints and Perspectives

An older presentation from the tutorial session we ran at the OT2004 conference.