Knowledge Management in Software Architecture: State of the Art

Abstract

Architectural knowledge has played a role in discussions on design, reuse, and evolution for over a decade. Over the past few years, the term has significantly increased in popularity and attempts are being made to properly define what constitutes ‘architectural knowledge’. In this chapter, we discuss the state-of-the-art in architectural knowledge management. We describe four main views on architectural knowledge based on the results of a systematic literature review. Based on software architecture and knowledge management theory we define four main categories of architectural knowledge, and discuss four distinct philosophies on managing architectural knowledge, which have their origin in the aforementioned views. Whereas traditionally tools, methods, and methodologies for architecture knowledge management were confined to a single philosophy, a trend can be observed that state-of-the-art approaches take a more holistic stance and integrate different philosophies in a single architecture knowledge management approach.