In the first days of software development little thought was handed to how the application applications and systems we built were architected. There were several reasons because of this: firstly, software development being new, the idea hadn’t been looked at, and secondly we didn’t realize how important architecture was to the expense of maintaining our applications and systems. Upon sober reflection, we probably needs to have foreseen the necessity for planned architecture and architects because building software isn’t radically different from building any other structure, for example buildings and bridges. We can’t return and undo the damage done by the possible lack of foresight that resulted in badly architected applications and systems but as project managers we could avoid causeing the mistake in our next software development project.
Today most organizations whose core competencies include software development recognize the significance of architecture to their business and have satisfied this need by creating the role of architect and making this person in charge of the architecture of all software applications and systems they develop. Even organizations whose core competencies don’t include software development, but who have invested heavily in IT, have created this role. These folks may be referred to as the Chief Architect, Head Architect, or Strategic Architect. Wikipedia identifies 3 different types of architect with respect to the scope of their responsibilities: the enterprise architect who is in charge of all an organization’s applications and systems, the perfect solution is architect who is in charge of the architecture of a method made up of more than one applications and hardware platforms, and the application architect whose responsibility is restricted to one application. The category and number of architects will most likely be constrained by the size of the business and how many applications and systems it supports. Regardless of what the business you benefit calls them, the application architect features a key role to play on your own software project.
Your job as project manager of a software development project, where a software architect is set up, is to ensure that their work is properly defined and organized so that your project receives maximum benefit from their expertise. If the business does not need an architect set up you must identify someone on your own team to fill that role. What’s not acceptable is always to plan the project without the acknowledgment of the necessity or significance of the architect. This role requires the maximum amount of knowledge of the device components as you possibly can, including software and hardware knowledge. Miami architects Additionally it requires deep technical knowledge of the technology used, both hardware and software and strong analytical skills. The person (other than a software architect) who almost certainly possesses a skill set such as this one, is a business or systems analyst. Dependant on the size and complexity of the present system, and your project, existing skill sets might not be sufficient to generally meet your project’s needs. You will find ample training opportunities available so select one that a lot of closely suits your preferences and have your candidate attend. If your project has adequate budget to fund the training, fine. Or even, bear in mind that the skill set acquired by the trainee is going to be offered to the business after your project is completed and your project should not need to bear the full cost of the training.
Now that you’ve a qualified software architect engaged for the project, you will need to plan that person’s tasks to take maximum advantage of their skills. I would recommend engaging the architect as early on in the project as you possibly can so that they may influence this is of the application or system being developed. The team that defines the business requirements to your project is going to be from the business side of the business and have deep knowledge of how the business runs but little knowledge of the present systems and technical options that come with the hardware and software that may deliver the solution. Having a software architect available during requirements gathering exercises can help you define requirements that leverage existing system and solution platform strengths and avoid weaknesses. Leaving their input till a later phase exposes your project to the risk of re-engineering the perfect solution is to match existing architecture or avoid solution weaknesses, after the fact. Involve the application architect in requirements gathering exercises as a consultant or SME (subject matter expert) who is able to point out risks in defining requirements and offer alternative solutions.
The important thing deliverable your architect is in charge of may be the architectural drawing. This is not actually a drawing but a mix of drawings and text. The drawings will represent the many the different parts of the device and their relationship to 1 another. The writing will describe data elements, relations between various architectural elements, and any standards designers must adhere to. The drawing can be a new anyone to represent a new system, or it may be an upgrade of a preexisting drawing to reflect the changes to a preexisting system made by your project. The development of the architectural drawing is the initial design activity in your project schedule. The drawing is found in the exact same fashion that engineering staff and skilled craftsmen use an architectural drawing of a building or bridge.
Analysts and programmers will use the Business Requirements Document (BRD) to inform them what features and functions to design and the architectural drawing to inform them how their software must fit together with other software in the device, any constraints the device places on the design, standards the brand new software must meet, and what critical data elements look like. The data in this drawing depends on the perfect solution is chosen, the hardware chosen, the present system and the complexity of the project. For instance, projects utilizing an Object Oriented solution will have 4 layers: a person interface layer (the layer an individual sees), a software layer (where the job is done), a domain layer (where business logic is applied), and an infrastructure layer (for logging messaging, etc.). Other solutions may demand more or fewer layers.
Software development projects which rely on a relational database to store and retrieve large volumes of data will have a database architect who is in charge of the design of the database. The database architect should be described as a member of your project team and their design must certanly be coordinated with the device architecture so the data elements in the architectural drawing are defined the exact same way because they are in the database’s data dictionary. Database design is important to system performance. Poor database design, or database design which doesn’t support the applications deploying it, will deliver a method with poor performance so database design and architectural design should be inputs together to yield a well integrated system with the performance characteristics required.
The architectural drawing should be approved by the project sponsor, project steering committee and the organization’s enterprise architect/chief architect/head architect where see your face isn’t the architect on your own team. In many cases people other than another architect will not have the capability to determine whether the drawing contains all the info required by the project, or whether the device design is sound. They will be able to find out that each sounding information has been addressed and that the drawing meets any requirements defined for this in the Project Charter, Statement of Work (SOW), or scope statement. Once the drawing has been approved it must be communicated to the analysts who’re in charge of producing design specifications.