Capturing and using software architecture knowledge for architecture-based software development

Management of architecture knowledge is vital for improving an organization's architectural capabilities. Despite the recognition of the importance of capturing and reusing architecture knowledge, there is no suitable support mechanism. We have developed a conceptual framework to provide appropriate guidance and tool support for making tacit or informally described architecture knowledge explicit. This framework identifies different approaches to capturing implicit architecture knowledge. We discuss different usages of the captured knowledge to improve the effectiveness of architecture processes. This paper also presents a prototype of a Web-based architecture knowledge management tool to support the storage and retrieval of the captured knowledge. The paper concludes with open issues that we plan to address in order to successfully transfer this support mechanism for capturing and using architecture knowledge to the industry.