Analyzing Software Architecture Documentation Models According to Agile Characteristics

Abstract

Background: Software companies that use agile practices and methods usually postpone architecture design activities in favor of accelerated development and idea validation, especially in uncertain and dynamic contexts. However, this attitude leads to the accumulation of different types of technical debt, including architectural and documentation debt. As the company evolves, the architecture created during development becomes complex and hard to maintain, affecting the company’s performance, the product’s quality, and the knowledge transfer. Aim: Support the software architecture planning and documentation by verifying the feasibility of software architecture description approaches in the context of agile development. Method: We evaluated six approaches using the DESMET Feature Analysis method, with features related to implementation cost, flexibility, adaptation to dynamic requirements, usefulness, description consistency, decision analysis, and system modularity. Results: Two approaches had the best scores, with a minor percentage difference between them. These results are due to the low implementation cost of the two approaches, the factor that most influenced the score. Conclusions: The results provide evidence about the feasibility of applying the studied approaches, in agile contexts, besides reducing the number of possible alternatives for conducting experimental studies in this context.