A few days ago Microsoft patterns & practices released a (preview) set of Layer Diagrams for Visual Studio that comply with their Application Architecture Guide 2.0. The diagrams are included in a simple VSIX package that can be downloaded from the Visual Studio Gallery. The image below gives you some idea about what to expect from this package. The diagram also contains a link to the complete architectural guidance on MSDN.

The layer package is a great start but there might be more opportunities for integrating architectural guidance in Visual Studio 2010. Right now, the package contains 5 layers diagrams so it shouldn’t be too difficult for an architect to decide which of the layer diagrams he should choose from the toolbox. But, what if we have additional layer diagrams or in addition to the diagrams we also have predefined architectural inspections and/or validations that the architect can choose from? In that case we might need additional guidance to help the architect choose between the various diagrams, validations and inspections. Below you can see a screenshot of a prototype we did in this direction where we use a WPF form to ask the architect some questions. Additional questions pop up based on the selection the architect makes (clicking yes or no on the form) to help him decide what exactly he needs for his architecture. In the end, based on his selections, the the environment is prepared for him.

This is just a prototype and not production ready but it might give you some ideas about how we think we should provide guidance. In the past couple of months Clemens and I have done some work on these ideas  but we haven’t really finished it yet. Now Visual Studio 2010 becomes close to RTM it is time to finish this so expect some updates in this direction.

Stay tuned!