Software Architect's Handbook

Educates team members

Software architecture documentation is also beneficial in educating the developers on the team. Developers who are unfamiliar with the system, either because it is a new one that has just begun its design process or because they have joined an existing project, can use it as a guide to become familiar with the architecture. It is useful for software developers to understand the design decisions that shape the architecture they are using.

As a software architecture changes, the documentation should be updated as well. Good documentation will help to communicate any changes to the development team so that they can be aware of them.