Software Architect's Handbook

Informal software architecture notations

Informal notations are views of the architecture that are often created with general-purpose tools, using whatever conventions the team deems appropriate. Using this type of notation helps communicate the software architecture to customers and other stakeholders who may not be as technical or have the need for more formalized approaches. Software architects may consider using this notation for artifacts created for the project's management team. They can help project management to understand the scope of the project.

Natural language is used with the notation, so these types of artifacts cannot be formally analyzed and tools will not be able to automatically generate code from the artifacts.