Architecture Knowledge Management: Concepts, Technologies, Challenges

Modern software systems are typically built by acquiring and integrating various components developed by commercial or open source entities, whose teams are commonly geographically distributed. Capturing the technical knowledge, contextual information, and rationale surrounding the design decisions underpinning the system architectures and software components can greatly improve the software development process. If not managed, this critical design knowledge is implicitly embedded in the architecture, becoming tacit knowledge which erodes as personnel on the project change. Moreover, the unavailability of architecture knowledge precludes organizations from growing their architectural capabilities.