You can run architectural discovery on the entire workspace or
on a working set. When you select a pattern for architectural discovery, the
workspace or working set is searched to find code that displays components
(classes, interfaces, and packages) that constitute the pattern under observation.
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.