Structures to effectively share architectural knowledge

Sharing architectural knowledge is not an easy task. A small software company in the Netherlands has successfully lifted patterns from the software implementation level to the architectural level by employing functional design patterns. These codify recurring functionality of applications. In this paper we explore the idea to raise patterns one level higher, to include the forces and tensions that play a role in shaping the design. In addition to capturing design solutions, such causal patterns convey an understanding of the problem context. We define a template for causal patterns and show its feasibility by working through an example and linking it to an existing ontology of architectural knowledge.