A Survey Paper on Software Architecture Visualization
Date
2008-06-19T16:11:43Z
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Abstract
Understanding the software architecture is a vital step
towards building and maintaining software systems. But
software architecture is an intangible conceptual entity.
Therefore, it is hard to comprehend a software
architecture without a visual mapping that reduces the
burden on the human brain. Visualizing software
architecture has been one of the most important topics in
software visualization. Not only are architects interested
in this visualization but also developers, testers, project
managers and even customers. This paper is a survey on
recent and key literature on software architecture
visualization. It touches on efforts that defined what
characteristics an effective visualization should have. It
compares various efforts in this discipline according to
taxonomies such as dimensionality, multiplicity of views
and use of metaphors. The paper also discusses trends and
patterns in recent research and addresses research
questions that are still open for further investigation.
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Keywords
Architecture