Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Interfaces
• SEI Report
Publisher
Software Engineering Institute
CMU/SEI Report Number
CMU/SEI-2002-TN-015Topic or Tag
Abstract
This is the fourth in a series of SEI reports on documenting software architectures. This report details guidance for documenting the interfaces to software elements. It prescribes a standard organization (template) for recording semantic as well as syntactic information about an interface. Stakeholders of interface documentation are enumerated, available notations for specifying interfaces are described, and three examples are provided.
Cite This SEI Report
Bachmann, F., Bass, L., Clements, P., Garlan, D., Ivers, J., Little, R., Nord, R., & Stafford, J. (2002, June 1). Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Interfaces. (SEI Report CMU/SEI-2002-TN-015). Retrieved August 19, 2026, from https://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/documenting-software-architecture-documenting-interfaces/.
@techreport{bachmann_2002,
author={Bachmann, Felix and Bass, Len and Clements, Paul and Garlan, David and Ivers, James and Little, Reed and Nord, Robert and Stafford, Judith},
title={Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Interfaces},
month={Jun},
year={2002},
number={{CMU/SEI-2002-TN-015},
institution={Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University},
url={https://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/documenting-software-architecture-documenting-interfaces/},
note={Accessed: 2026-Aug-19}
}
Bachmann, Felix, Len Bass, Paul Clements, David Garlan, James Ivers, Reed Little, Robert Nord, and Judith Stafford. "Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Interfaces." (CMU/SEI-2002-TN-015). Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. Software Engineering Institute, June 1, 2002. https://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/documenting-software-architecture-documenting-interfaces/.
F. Bachmann, L. Bass, P. Clements, D. Garlan, J. Ivers, R. Little, R. Nord, and J. Stafford, "Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Interfaces," Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. Software Engineering Institute, SEI Report CMU/SEI-2002-TN-015, 1-Jun-2002 [Online]. Available: https://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/documenting-software-architecture-documenting-interfaces/. [Accessed: 19-Aug-2026].
Bachmann, Felix, Len Bass, Paul Clements, David Garlan, James Ivers, Reed Little, Robert Nord, and Judith Stafford. "Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Interfaces." (SEI Report CMU/SEI-2002-TN-015). Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute, 1 Jun. 2002. https://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/documenting-software-architecture-documenting-interfaces/. Accessed 19 Aug. 2026.
Bachmann, Felix; Bass, Len; Clements, Paul; Garlan, David; Ivers, James; Little, Reed; Nord, Robert; & Stafford, Judith. Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Interfaces. CMU/SEI-2002-TN-015. Software Engineering Institute. 2002. https://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/documenting-software-architecture-documenting-interfaces/