Documenting Software Systems with Views: Lessons Learned for Communicating Big Data

A “view” is a form of graphical documentation representing some aspect of a software system. Views can be an important aid in helping to understand large-scale applications. They can be automatically produced through reverse engineering. This talk summarizes our findings and lessons learned related to documenting software systems with views from numerous projects spanning 25 years of research and practice (1992-2017). These findings have continued relevance for communicating big data, with tailored guidance for data scientists, software and systems engineers, and technical writers alike.