Capturing and sharing software architecture design rationale has always been particularly challenging in complex application domains such as enterprise computing. Because of the ongoing acceleration of technology innovation and economic forces such as outsourcing and offshoring, conservative knowledge management practices and existing tools are no longer sufficient; they offer only rudimentary support for knowledge exchange and collaboration on the Internet.

Architectural Decision Knowledge Web Tool responds to these challenges. This Web 2.0 collaboration system supports the cooperative decision-making work of software architects. This situational Web application has a layered client-server architecture; team members need only a Web browser in order to work with the system. The domain and database model extends that suggested by the IBM Unified Method Framework Artifact "Architectural Decisions (ARC 100)"; decision reports can be generated.

Architectural Decision Knowledge Web Tool can be used for the following purposes:

• accelerating design activities through rapid reuse of knowledge (required activities, best practices)
• demonstrating delivery project excellence, improving quality of decision making and communication
• facilitating technical quality assurance reviews
• providing practitioner education
• supporting SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) governance.

The download package contains the web application software; related documentation such as installation instructions and user's guide; handbook and frequently asked questions; and sample content.

The following features are currently supported:

• ability to create, read, update, and delete operations on projects, decision topics, architectural decisions, alternatives and outcomes
• ARC 100 work product generation (selected content, for direct inclusion in project deliverables)
• decision dependency management and relationship editor
• decision lifecycle management (decision scope, phase, role, and status attributes)
• import and export of projects and decisions
• searching and filtering by various attributes
• collaboration features such as comments, tags, and attachments.

The server part of the Web application runs on IBM Mashup Center. On the client side, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer are the supported browsers.

How does it work?

Architectural Decision Knowledge Web Tool is a Rich Internet Application (RIA). It extends a mashup hub and and application server with widgets and commands supporting architectural decision capturing and modeling.

"Software architects and other team members can interface with the tool using standard Web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. The client part of the RIA runs inside these browsers and is implemented in JavaScript™ and Dojo. This client part communicates with the server part via HTTP; the server part is implemented in Java, following common architectural patterns such as layering and model-view-controller.

The extended ARC 100 domain model shines through on all three server layers: the presentation layer (widgets, master-details pattern), the domain layer (object-oriented code, componentization), and the persistence layer (relational database schema).

For more information about architectural decision modeling and the domain model, consult this developerWorks article.