How to describe software architecture in a way that can be easily understood by all stakeholders, be they technical or non-technical?
How to describe the same thing from diferent perspectives without repeating yourself?
The answer: ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฐ+๐ญ ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐บ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐น.
The 4+1 view model describes a system from five diferent perspectives:
๐๐ผ๐ด๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ – describes the functionality that the system provides to end-users.
๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ – describes processes and how they communicate.
๐๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ผ๐ฝ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ – describes the system from software development perspective.
๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐น๐ผ๐๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ – describes how the system looks like when deployed.
๐จ๐๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ – describe sequences of interactions between objects and between processes.
Some consider it rigid, but for me this is a simple and sufficient structure to describe most of the systems I’m working on.