Services / IT Consulting

IT Architecture

Development of an IT architecture

The system architect designs a suitable system architecture based on the functional and non-functional system requirements. The architectural results will be used as guideline and to document design decisions.

In the first step, significant architectural principles will be specified and possible design alternatives will be examined. In accordance with the selected design alternative, the system will be decomposed into segments, hardware, software, and external units.v

Relations and interfaces between the elements and to the environment will be identified and summarized. In addition, joint system charactistics like safety and security concept, transaction concept and logging concept, will be specified.v

The suitability of the selected architecture for the system to be developed will be assessed. Open questions may be answered, e.g., within the scope of a prototype development.v

The main responsibility for the architectural design is vested in the system architect who will be supported by various specialists, e.g. for hardware development, software development, logistics, safety, security and ergonomics.

The architecture is the central document for the preparation of additional products. It specifies all segements, hardware, software and external units for the system. Based on the overall architecture, an architecture will be developed for every hardware or software unit, and specifications will be prepared for the respective elements.

What is an IT architecture ?

IT architectures describe the components of an application or an IT system, their interrelations and principles and guidelines which define their design and their further development.

The role of the software architect

The responsibilities of the IT architect result from the interaction of his tasks within the customer environment and his specific tasks during the actual project.

Tasks of IT Architecture

Tasks-methodology	Responsibilities	Tasks-role
Provides checklists, e.g. for reviews Provides templates for an uniform project documentation Training of team in used technologies, best practices, paradigms, guidelines Documentation on how the single modules fit together Develops guidelines for the teams for design, development and testing ...	Checks analysis results concerning completeness, consistency, verifiability, etc. Consideration of marginal conditions, e.g. legal regulations, existing technologies and systems, etc. Decides on programming languages, middleware, technologies, paradigms Recognizes and reduces complexity ...	Interface to the customer, result-oriented with rapid prototyping Supports project management, e.g. application resources and their capabilities, progress monitoring, etc. Works hand in hand with QA manager and risk manager Responsible for the compliance with the SW process, e.g. organization and realization of reviews ...

Different views make the whole picture

To create different views onto the task is one central requirement for the IT architect. This guarantees later the actual fulfillment of all identified requirements by the developed solution.

Views

Context views (static)	Runtime views (dynamic)	Distribution views (static)
Complete overview How do the different sub systems/components interact logically? How is the system structured? Which interfaces are provided/required?	How is the chronological interaction between the sub systems/components? Which interfaces/services/methods are called, when, why and by whom? Mapping of the business logic to the sub system/components	Which sub system/components etc. are running on which hardware? Requirements concerning the respective hardware How are these entities linked to each other (e.g. network configuration, etc.)?