CPSA Views and Documentation 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which arc42 section is the recommended place to document cross-cutting concepts such as security, logging, and error handling?
- Section 3 – System Scope and Context
- Section 8 – Crosscutting Concepts (Correct answer)
- Section 5 – Building Block View
- Section 12 – Glossary
Correct answer: Section 8 – Crosscutting Concepts
Arc42 Section 8 is dedicated to crosscutting concerns that apply uniformly across multiple parts of the system.
Question 2: When selecting between a tabular format and a diagram for documenting interface specifications, which factor should drive the decision?
- Personal aesthetic preference of the architect
- Which format most effectively communicates the information to its audience (Correct answer)
- Company policy mandating one format
- The number of interfaces documented
Correct answer: Which format most effectively communicates the information to its audience
The goal of documentation is clear communication, so the format that best serves the audience's understanding should be chosen.
Question 3: What does the 'Development View' in Kruchten's 4+1 model focus on?
- The runtime behavior of processes
- The organization of source code, modules, and packages as seen by developers (Correct answer)
- The mapping of software to hardware
- The functional decomposition of user requirements
Correct answer: The organization of source code, modules, and packages as seen by developers
The Development (Implementation) view describes how software is organized in the development environment, including modules, packages, and subsystems.
Question 4: A team adopts lightweight architecture documentation using Markdown files in their Git repository. Which documentation challenge does this approach most directly mitigate?
- Lack of stakeholder buy-in
- Documentation becoming outdated because it lives separately from the code (Correct answer)
- Insufficient use of UML notation
- Inability to produce PDF exports
Correct answer: Documentation becoming outdated because it lives separately from the code
Co-locating documentation with code in version control reduces staleness because both evolve together under the same review process.
Question 5: Which statement about architecture views is correct according to CPSA foundations?
- A single view can fully describe all aspects of a complex system
- Multiple views are needed because no single view captures all architecturally relevant information (Correct answer)
- Views should only be created for external stakeholders
- Views must strictly follow UML notation to be valid
Correct answer: Multiple views are needed because no single view captures all architecturally relevant information
Complex systems require multiple complementary views to address different concerns, stakeholders, and levels of abstraction.
Question 6: In arc42 documentation, what is the purpose of the Glossary section?
- To list all external system interfaces
- To define domain-specific and project-specific terms to avoid misunderstanding (Correct answer)
- To record all architecture decisions
- To document deployment configuration parameters
Correct answer: To define domain-specific and project-specific terms to avoid misunderstanding
The Glossary ensures all stakeholders share a common vocabulary, reducing ambiguity in documentation and communication.
Question 7: An architect must communicate the physical distribution of software services across cloud regions to operations staff. Which view is most appropriate?
- UML sequence diagram
- Deployment / infrastructure view (Correct answer)
- Use case diagram
- Entity-relationship diagram
Correct answer: Deployment / infrastructure view
The deployment view maps software services to physical or virtual infrastructure, making it the correct choice for operations-oriented communication.
CPSA Views and Documentation 4
Which arc42 section is the recommended place to document cross-cutting concepts such as security, logging, and error handling?