Ontology-based Software Architecture Documentation

A common approach to software architecture documentation in industry projects is the use of file-based documents. This approach offers a single-dimensional perspective on the architectural knowledge contained. Knowledge retrieval from file-based architecture documentation is efficient if the perspective chosen fits the needs of the readers, it is less so if the perspective does not match the needs of the readers. In this paper we describe an approach aimed at addressing architecture documentation retrieval issues. We have employed a software ontology in a semantic wiki optimized for architecture documentation. We have evaluated this ontology-based approach in a controlled industry experiment involving software professionals. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach is found to be better than that of the file-based approach.