Architecture Visualization

Overview

The Application Architecture Visualization feature within NanoAPI leverages dependency manifests to create dynamic, real-time graphs that illustrate interactions across project-level, file-level, and symbol-level within codebases. This visual representation streamlines the onboarding of new developers and architects and enables technical leaders to effectively manage software complexity and make informed architectural decisions.

Actors

New Developers: Quickly understand the overall structure and interactions within codebases, significantly reducing onboarding time.
Software Architects: Easily analyze architectural patterns and dependencies, enabling precise identification of potential structural improvements.
Technical Leadership: Access intuitive visualizations to gauge complexity and inform strategic decision-making regarding resource allocation and architectural planning.

Preconditions

Projects have been imported and analyzed in NanoAPI. This can be done via the CLI using napi manifest generate and napi manifest push.
Dependency manifests are correctly generated and available.

Main Flow

Access Architecture Visualization: Users log into NanoAPI and navigate to the Architecture Visualization section.
Select Project View: Users select a specific Project to view a high-level dependency graph outlining interactions and dependencies between projects.
Detailed Exploration: Users drill down to file-level and symbol-level to examine finer-grained interactions within the codebase.
Interactive Analysis: Users interact with the visualization to identify critical paths, tightly coupled modules, and potential bottlenecks.
Facilitated Onboarding: New team members utilize the visualization to quickly grasp the underlying structure and complexity of the system.

Alternative Flows

Snapshot and Share: Users generate snapshots, embeddable links, or exports of visualizations to include in documentation, presentations, or external tools.

Postconditions

Users have an up-to-date, visual understanding of software architecture.
Quick identification of dependencies and interaction complexity allows for informed technical decisions and streamlined developer onboarding.

Benefits

Accelerated Developer Onboarding: Quick visualization of complex interactions reduces ramp-up time for new team members.
Improved Architectural Insights: Clear visualization helps architects identify, prioritize, and mitigate technical risks and complexity.
Enhanced Strategic Decision-Making: Technical leadership benefits from precise, intuitive insights to effectively manage software development efforts and architecture planning.

Expected Outcomes

Reduction in the complexity and improved manageability of codebases.
Enhanced team productivity and alignment through shared architectural clarity.
Improved strategic outcomes by providing actionable architectural intelligence.