You run architectural discovery on the entire workspace. When you
select a pattern for architectural discovery, the workspace is searched to
find code that displays classes and interfaces constituting the selected pattern.
To show each instance of the pattern, a topic diagram is created.
Architectural discovery provides the following benefits:
- Reduces the learning curve for understanding an existing architecture
in terms of the underlying patterns in it. This helps especially when you
work with an unfamiliar architecture.
- Helps you to make accurate deductions about an application. For example,
in the Factory Method pattern a class is used to produce, or to be a factory
for, other classes. So when you see a class in a topic diagram showing the
Factory Method pattern, you know that the class produces other classes.
- Shows the structural patterns and antipatterns that comprise the software
application. This helps you spot coding patterns to follow as well as coding
patterns to correct.