"[3] The key idea of software maps is to cope with that challenge and optimization problems by providing effective communication means to close the communication gap among the various stakeholders and information domains within software development projects and obtaining insights in the sense of information visualization.
"A key aspect for this decision-making is that software maps provide the structural context required for correct interpretation of these performance indicators".
[6] As an instrument of communication, software maps act as open, transparent information spaces which enable priorities of code quality and the creation of new functions to be balanced against one another and to decide upon and implement necessary measures to improve the software development process.
For example, they facilitate decisions as to where in the code an increase in quality would be beneficial both for speeding up current development activities and for reducing risks of future maintenance problems.
Due to their high degree of expressiveness (e.g., information density) and their instantaneous, automated generation, the maps additionally serve to reflect the current status of system and development processes, bridging an essential information gap between management and development teams, improve awareness about the status, and serve as early risk detection instrument.
Software maps use the hierarchy of the software implementation artifacts such as source code files as a base to build a tree mapping, i.e., a rectangular area that represents the whole hierarchy, subdividing the area into rectangular sub-areas.
They form a key concept and technique within the fields of software diagnosis.