Open Access

Roy Oberhauser

• Software is, in its essence, an inherently invisible digital construct, and thus its comprehension and its visualization remain a challenge. All software involves some underlying structure(s), and Software Architecture (SA) comprises the (intended) conceptual abstractions and structuring principles across this invisible construct. Agile development methods, DevOps, and continuous development results in a changing implementation and associated SA that is evolving and continually in flux. Any presumed SA understanding and (perhaps outdated or inconsistent) associated SA documentation may also diverge from the reality, while any shared SA concept across stakeholder minds may vary or differ, potentially resulting in a lack of conceptual integrity. In contrast, an Informed Software Architecture (ISA) is grounded in reality based on actual data and evidence, rather than being influenced by out-of-sync models, documentation, misconceptions, or assumptions. Yet the challenge remains of how best to visually convey ISA aspects, such as internal static software structures and behavioral and operational dynamics, to support evidence-based design, comprehension, and insights in an accessible way for a wider stakeholder spectrum. This paper contributes VR-ISA, a Virtual Reality (VR) solution concept to immersively support an ISA with the visualization of structural, behavioral, and operational aspects. To exemplify our solution concept, three VR-based viewpoints, framing different concerns for different stakeholder groups, are used to illustrate the potential of VR to support ISA: 1) components and connectors, for depicting dynamic distributed event and data streams, 2) modules and dependencies, for depicting static internal module composition and their dependencies, and 3) execution observability, for depicting operational execution, tracing, and observability aspects. Our realization shows its feasibility, while a case-based evaluation provides insights into its capabilities and potential.