I - Introduction

This chapter explains the following topics:

• What is arc42?
• Why this book?
• What this book is not!
• An overview of examples
• A table of arc42 sections

This book contains several examples of Software Architecture Documentation based upon the practical, economical, well-established, and systematic arc42 approach.

It shows how you can communicate about software architectures, but it does not show you how to develop or implement systems!

I.1 What is arc42?

arc42 is a template for architecture documentation.

It answers the following two questions in a pragmatic way, but can be tailored to your specific needs:

• What should we document/communicate about our architecture?
• How should we document/communicate it?

Figure 1.1 gives you the big picture: it shows a (slightly simplified) overview of the structure of arc42:

Figure 1.1: Structure of arc42

Compare arc42 to a cabinet...