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An exploratory study on ontology engineering for software architecture documentation
De Graaf K., Liang P., Tang A., Van Hage W., Van Vliet H. Computers in Industry65 (7):1053-1064,2014.Type:Article
Date Reviewed: Mar 18 2015

Software architecture documentation is the focus of this paper, in particular, the building of an ontology for architectural documentation that satisfies the needs of diverse stakeholders. Software architecture documentation involves numerous issues of knowledge acquisition, the categorization of components and relationships, context, structures, and representations.

The authors present a bottom-up, question-based approach for building and maintaining an ontology. The approach begins with the identification of stakeholder needs using typical questions asked about architecture. From these questions, categories of related concepts and properties pertaining to architecture are identified, along with project-specific instances. Contextual factors are utilized to provide scope, to guide the acquisition of questions, and to resolve conflicting interpretations. The approach results in a domain ontology, represented as a semantic graph.

The approach was applied in an industrial case study in which the resulting ontology helped improve the retrieval of architectural knowledge. Several lessons were learned, for example, the importance of contextual factors. The authors plan future case studies to address lessons learned, and to compare their approach with other ontology approaches, for example, top-down and middle-out.

This study is of interest to knowledge engineers, and users of architectural information: managers, software engineers, testers, maintainers, and those in quality assurance and configuration management. While it focuses on the use of architectural documentation, it has implications for the broader issues of software architecture, and will also be of interest to those who generate that documentation: requirements engineers, architects, and designers. Just as Basili’s goal-question-metric paradigm [1] was valuable in contributing to our understanding of software measurement, this typical question approach has the potential to contribute to our understanding of software architecture.

Reviewer:  J. M. Perry Review #: CR143247 (1506-0489)
1) Basili, V. R. Software quality assurance and measurement: a worldwide perspective. International Thompson Computer Press, London, UK, 1995.
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