Technical Architect Overview
Architectures are the actual blueprint as well as the end-result technical underpinnings
to the solution, excluding business logic - i.e., blueprints + design + code.
Architecture Layers
Architecture Layers provide the formal structure required to build a software application.
Beginning at the lowest level with the "boxes and wires" that are part of the infrastructure
architecture, moving up to the software services (e.g. logging) provided by technical
architecture that are integrated together to provide a structured application architecture
for developers to build applications and business systems on top of.
- Business Systems
- Application Architecture
- Technical Architecture
- Infrastructure Architecture
Business Systems contain the business logic and applications to support business
processes. Business Systems can be custom-built or packaged solutions. They use
the common services and overall structure and capabilities provided by the application
architecture to fulfill their functionality, but typically involve multiple applications
and application styles
The Application Architecture is responsible for managing the interaction between
the Technical Architecture and the application itself. As such, it frames, constrains
and supports the generic and non-functional requirements that occur throughout the
application. The Application Architecture provides a key opportunity for reuse and
consistency, supporting simplifying and accelerating the delivery of the application
itself.
Typically, the Application Architecture will provide:
- Patterns and approaches to solve problems e.g. defining how the Technical Architecture
will be used by the Business Application, and potentially providing components that
wrap the Technical Architecture in order to make it specific and applicable to the
particular business application. This is important as it ensures consistency within
the Business Application and to the Application Designers and Developers. These
patterns and approaches may extend to code templates and frameworks that direct
and constrain the application developers.
- Additional support for non-functional requirements, utilizing the Technical Architecture.
For instance, while the Technical Architecture may define a logging component, the
Application Architecture may provide the supporting and contextual information that
enables logging to fulfill the defined non-functional requirements (thus acting
as the bridge between the Technical Architecture and the Business Application).
- Potentially reusable components that are utilized throughout the Business Application.
For instance, if a particular UI component is identified during the requirements
review that occurs throughout the application, then it may be a candidate to be
included within the Application Architecture rather developed on an adhoc basis
within the Business Application.
- When architecture is made up of multiple systems, the Application Architecture will
provide guidance as to what business functionality should reside in what system
and how the interactions between these systems should be controlled and designed.
Generally, the Application Architecture will be much more tailored to the particular
requirements of the Business Application than the Technical Architecture. This should
be kept in mind when determining whether an architecture component should be implemented
at the Technical or Application Architecture layers. The size and composition of
the Application Architecture will vary from system to system, and may more of a
set of approaches that are understood and used by the designers and developers than
a set of implemented components.
When designing the Application Architecture, the Architect needs to be familiar
with
- the business requirements (both functional and non-functional) and
- Look for opportunities to solve problems and provide common functionality so to
simplify (and accelerate) the work of the application designers and developers.
The applications architecture is specified on the basis of business requirements.
This involves defining the interaction between application packages, databases,
and middleware systems in terms of functional coverage. This helps identify any
integration problems or gaps in functional coverage. A migration plan can then be
drawn up for systems which are at the end of the software life cycle or which have
inherent technological risks.
Applications Architecture means managing how multiple applications are poised to
work together. It is different from software architecture, which deals with design
concerns of one application.
Technical Architecture defines the middleware, technical services and system software
that are required to support one or more application styles. It comprises of Development,
Execution & Operation Architecture.
Development architechure includes three major areas:
- The development life cycle and processes used to build business applications
- The application models that show the appropriate technical design that will best
fit the business requirements
- The inventory and categorization of the business applications that exist within
the organization today. (In some companies, this area is called application architecture,
but including it in the definition of the broader development architecture.)
Project management is about planning, organizing, securing, managing, leading, and
controlling resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor
with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained
by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically
to bring about beneficial change or added value. The temporary nature of projects
stands in contrast with business as usual (or operations), which are repetitive,
permanent, or semi-permanent functional activities to produce products or services.
In practice, the management of these two systems is often quite different, and as
such requires the development of distinct technical skills and management strategies.
The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals
and objectives while honoring the preconceived constraints. Typical constraints
are scope, time, and budget. The secondary—and more ambitious—challenge is to optimize
the allocation of necessary inputs and integrate them to meet pre-defined objectives.
Monitoring and controlling includes:
- Measuring the ongoing project activities ('where we are');
- Monitoring the project variables (cost, effort, scope, etc.) against the project
management plan and the project performance baseline (where we should be);
- Identify corrective actions to address issues and risks properly (How can we get
on track again);
- Influencing the factors that could circumvent integrated change control so only
approved changes are implemented.
=>Solution Planning & Agile Methods
Agile software development is a group of software development methods based on iterative
and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration
between self-organizing, cross-functional teams. It promotes adaptive planning,
evolutionary development and delivery, a time-boxed iterative approach, and encourages
rapid and flexible response to change. It is a conceptual framework that promotes
foreseen interactions throughout the development cycle
Agile_software_development
=>Distributed Agile Development Estimator
=>Technical Architecture Estimator
Requirements management, requirements definition, and requirements engineering practices
are the cornerstones of project success.
Rational Requirements Composer
- The aim of Software Quality Management (SQM) is to manage the quality of software
and of its development process.
- A quality product is one which meets its requirements and satisfies the user
- A quality culture is an organizational environment where quality is viewed as everyone’s
responsibility.
SQA - An Organizational quality guide of
- Standards, regulations, and procedures to produce, verify, evaluate and confirm
work products during the software development lifecycle
- Incorporated knowledge base of best practices
- Off-the-shelf software tools selected to apply the above
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Issue
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Integrity Solution Capability and Benefits
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Process Inefficiency and Waste
Quality and processes are linked inextricably. Good, enforceable process leads to
good quality. Automation also plays a major role in the cost and time to achieve
better quality.
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- End-to-end process automation and enforcement
- Comprehensive metrics dashboards identify bottlenecks
- Lean and Agile concepts drive out waste.
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Late Cycle Rework
Errors introduced during requirements definition early in the lifecycle produce
as much as 40% of the rework on the average project. Quality must be "baked in"
from the beginning.
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- Improved capture of accurate and complete requirements early in the development
cycle
- Immediate propagation of changes upstream AND downstream
- Better collaboration and communication with a single source of truth
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Inability to Manage Growing Product Lines When each variant is treated as a unique
product, change management, defect management, and validation must be duplicated
across products. This can create many quality issues as resources are spread thin.
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- Advanced reuse of all lifecycle assets including features, requirements, code, test
cases, test results, etc.
- Ability to perform rapid impact analysis across all product variants and product
lines
- Automated propagation of changes and fixes across applicable variants ensures quality
across product lines
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Disconnected Tools and Repositories Data redundancy, siloed processes, and disconnected
tools lead to significant manual intervention and with that comes a high percentage
of preventable errors.
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- Single platform for managing all activities and assets
- Enterprise integration gateway to ensure assets are accessible and relate-able while
reducing data redundancy
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Testing
- Functional Testing
- Integration Testing
- Performance Testing
The execution architecture decomposes the system in terms of concurrent elements
and hardware elements. This module explains execution architecture, and examines
concurrent subsystems, concurrent objects, and deployment.
- Focuses on the system runtime structure
- Hardware elements, subsystems, processes and threads
- Suited for examining quality attributes, most-notably runtime
- Attributes
- E.g. performance, security, usability. scalability
- Similarly to conceptual architecture comprised of components and
- Connector
Error/Resume Handling & Notification
Signal Handling
Configuration
Configuration management (CM) is a process for establishing and maintaining consistency
of a product’s performance, functional and physical attributes with its requirements,
design and operational information throughout its life
Configuration
Management
Thread Management
Thread Management
Serialization
Serialization
Batch services
Batch services
Like all other architectures, the operations architecture must run through the 10
steps to complete its design. The first step is the vision. In this case, it should
be the weight of the world on our shoulders. While you might think this motto is
depressing -- everyone relies on you, and only you, to do everything -- it is, in
fact, quite positive. Operations teams are heroes that everyone can rely on to make
things run smoothly. That is, because like Atlas of old, the operations architecture
supports all other architectures. If the operations teams perform their work properly,
business runs smoothly and IT becomes an enabler instead of a show stopper.
This is the true purpose of IT. So, how do you get there? One of the first aspects
to work on in this architecture is team roles. This means focusing on step 5: identifying
the principal actors in the architecture. Operations teams consist of personnel
who play several different roles in the organization. Depending on the organization's
size, the same person may be playing several different roles, but it is still important
to identify the roles that are required to ensure that nothing is missed. Organizations
that have successfully transited to enterprise architecture -- one that relies fully
on proper operations architecture -- have introduced the following team roles:
- Project management
- Process management
- Business relationship management (BRM)
- Technical architecture
- Desktop operations
- Server operations
- Network operations
- Security operations
- Services administration and coordination
Backup & Disaster Recovery (F)
Disaster recovery is the process, policies and procedures related to preparing for
recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organization
after a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery is a subset of business
continuity. While business continuity involves planning for keeping all aspects
of a business functioning in the midst of disruptive events, disaster recovery focuses
on the IT or technology systems that support business functions.
Performance & Usage Management (F)
Network performance management: a set of functions that evaluate and report the
effectiveness of the network or network element, and the behavior of telecommunications
equipment. It also includes a set of subfunctions, such as gathering statistical
information, maintaining and examining historical logs, determining system performance
under natural and artificial conditions, and altering system modes of operation.[3]
System performance management includes monitoring monitoring and management of utilization
of operating systems resources, including CPU, memory, I/O, and disk usage. This
includes both physical and virtual systems. In cloud environments events can be
defined using monitoring software and actions automated with cloud management application
programming interfaces.[4]
Application performance management (APM): the discipline within systems management
that focuses on monitoring and managing the performance and availability of software
applications. APM looks at workflow and related IT tools deployed to detect, diagnose,
remedy, and report on application performance issues to ensure that application
performance meets or exceeds the expectations of end-users and businesses.
Self-learning performance management: the use of technology to help automate the
performance management of information technology systems. This is done through the
use of software that employs applied mathematics (such as statistics, time series
analysis, and forecasting), automated baselining, neural networks, pattern recognition,
and other similar technologies. The intent is to automate manual processes and "fixed
baseline" approaches used to determine when IT systems are operating out of normal
ranges, which would indicate potential system problems. Self-learning performance
management is complementary to the disciplines of systems management, network performance
management, and application performance management, and is sometimes referred to
by IT analyst firms like Gartner by the term behavior learning technology or behavior
learning software.
Business transaction management (BTM): the discipline within systems management
that monitors business transactions across the data center in order to manage IT
performance
Production Scheduling (F)
Scheduling is an important tool for manufacturing and engineering, where it can
have a major impact on the productivity of a process. In manufacturing, the purpose
of scheduling is to minimize the production time and costs, by telling a production
facility when to make, with which staff, and on which equipment. Production scheduling
aims to maximize the efficiency of the operation and reduce costs.
Software Distribution (C)
Software distribution can refer to:
The process of software distribution, from creator to the user,
A collection of software, also referred to as a distribution, or a distro, which
is set of software components built, assembled and configured so that it can be
used essentially "as is" for its intended purpose.
User Profile Management (C)
Profile management (Citrix Systems) ensures that the user’s personal settings are
applied to the user’s virtual desktop and applications, regardless of the location
and end point device.
Profile management is enabled through a profile optimization service that provides
an easy, reliable way for managing these settings in Windows environments to ensure
a consistent experience by maintaining a single profile that follows the user. It
auto-consolidates and optimizes user profiles to minimize management and storage
requirements and requires minimal administration, support and infrastructure, while
providing users with improved logon and logout.
IT Asset Management (F)
IT asset management (ITAM) is the set of business practices that join financial,
contractual and inventory functions to support life cycle management and strategic
decision making for the IT environment. Assets include all elements of software
and hardware that are found in the business environment.
Services Delivery & Support (F)
To run business, operations, and support aspects of an enterprise IT organization,
there are many applications that are necessary. The complexity of controlling changes,
service levels, and costs would be impossible without these tools and processes.
The goal is to provide technologies, tools, and processes that significantly enhance
the efficiency and quality of central IT services.
In pursuit of this vision, quality should continuously be tracked by direct service
metrics, including operational monitoring and customer feedback. Likewise, efficiency
should be tracked by performance in execution of services rendered and by cost management
for service delivery. Requests for IT support across the entire campus will be tracked
and routed with the minimum of delay; these support requests will be consolidated
across campus to increase efficiency. Rich repositories of support information —
from descriptive summaries to detailed FAQs and user guides — will be available
both to IT support personnel as well as directly available to end users. Additional
information resources will be delivered via enhanced online training technologies.
IT Services will leverage a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to track
and anticipate the service needs of clients.
There will be fully integrated management control over changes in the application
and system environments, and tracking of the real-time health of services. All services
and their dependencies will be understood and monitored in order to rapidly determine
the root cause of service disruptions. Monitoring and trend metrics data will be
used to anticipate service degradation. Analytical insight into financial, operational,
resource utilization, and support metrics will be available via a reporting infrastructure
that has access to consolidated data fed from all relevant sources.
- Service Catalog
- Server and Application Monitoring
- Client Relationship
Management
- Training Services Technologies
- Ordering and Billing
-
Reporting
- Service Desk
- Workflow
Infrastructure Architecture
Infrastructure Architecture defines the hardware, networks, and system software
that support the application software and business systems of an enterprise
Infrastructure architecture is a new kid on the architecture block. Traditionally,
a large amount of IT-architecture attention has been devoted to information and
application architecture. However, several developments have fostered a growing
desire for infrastructure architecture. But not only will an organization's infrastructure
provisions benefit from the appliance of this new architectural discipline; IT architecture,
as a whole, will mature. Being that infrastructure architecture is in its childhood,
a lot of work has to be done to stimulate and create infrastructure-architecture
methods, models, and tools. This paper includes a number of first steps in this
new architecture discipline.
LAN, WAN, SAN, Physical Data centre
Integration Architecture
In a well-designed building, the electrics and plumbing usually keep working no
matter how many appliances are switched on. Such a building is also capable of extension
without having to tear up the blueprints and start again. Why? Because it has good
architectural design.
The same applies to software systems. Software architecture is the backbone of any
complex computer system. The architecture encompasses all of the software elements,
the relationships between the elements and the user interfaces to those elements.
The performance and reliability of a software system are highly dependent upon the
software architecture.
Well-designed software architecture can be extended with relative ease to accommodate
new applications without requiring extensive infrastructure development.
Message Queuing
Queuing is the mechanism by which messages are held until an application is ready
to process them. Queuing allows you to:
- Communicate between programs (which might each be running in different environments)
without having to write the communication code.
- Select the order in which a program processes messages.
- Balance loads on a system by arranging for more than one program to service a queue
when the number of messages exceeds a threshold.
- Increase the availability of your applications by arranging for an alternative system
to service the queues if your primary system is unavailable.
Event Processing
Event handling is familiar to any developer who has programmed graphical user interfaces
(GUI). When a user interacts with a GUI control (e.g., clicking a button on a form),
one or more methods are executed in response to the above event. Events can also
be generated without user interactions. Event handlers are methods in an object
that are executed in response to some events occurring in the application. To understand
the event handling model of .Net framework, one need to understand the concept of
delegate
Web Services
Web services provide a standard means of interoperating between different software
applications, running on a variety of platforms and/or frameworks. Here we talk
about a common definition of a Web service, and define its place within a larger
Web services framework to guide the community. The WSA provides a conceptual model
and a context for understanding Web services and the relationships between the components
of this model.
The Web services architecture is an interoperability architecture: it identifies
those global elements of the global Web services network that are required in order
to ensure interoperability between Web services.
•The Message Oriented Model focuses on messages, message structure, message transport
and so on — without particular reference as to the reasons for the messages, nor
to their significance
•The Service Oriented Model focuses on aspects of service, action and so on. While
clearly, in any distributed system, services cannot be adequately realized without
some means of messaging, the converse is not the case: messages do not need to relate
to services
•The Resource Oriented Model focuses on resources that exist and have owners.
•The Policy Model focuses on constraints on the behavior of agents and services.
We generalize this to resources since policies can apply equally to documents (such
as descriptions of services) as well as active computational resources.
Common Data Model
Data modeling in software engineering is the process of creating a data model for
an information system by applying formal data modeling techniques. to manage data
as a resource;
for the integration of information systems;
for designing databases/data warehouses (aka data repositories)
XML Core
XML Core Services (formerly known as MSXML, for Microsoft Extensible Markup Language
or XML) is an application for processing Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation
(XSLT) in an XML file. Based on Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM), XML Core
Services is essentially an application programming interface (API) to an XML parser
and the XPath processor. The parser organizes the XML data into a tree structure
for processing, and the processor converts the XML to Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML) for display.
XML Core Services works in conjunction with Internet Explorer. The earliest version
of MSXML was included on Internet Explorer 4.0, which made that version the first
browser to support XML. MSXML 1.0 was a basic parser based on the Document Object
Model (DOM). The current version can be used to create and validate XML documents,
as well as parsing and processing them, and can make HTTP (Web site) requests and
process the replies. Support is included for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
recommendations for XML Schema.
MSXML can be used to create, parse, and process XML documents using either DOM (memory-mapped
hierarchical tree-based API) or SAX (streaming event-based API). It can be used
to validate XML documents either using XSD schemas or XDR schemas. It can be used
to transform XML documents using XSLT and XPath.
Data Architecture
Data architecture describes the architecture of the data structures used by a business
and/or its applications. There are descriptions of data in storage and data in motion;
descriptions of data stores, data groups and data items; and mappings of those data
artifacts to data qualities, applications, locations etc.
Essential to realizing the target state, Data Architecture describes how data is
processed, stored, and utilized in a given system. It provides criteria for data
processing operations that make it possible to design data flows and also control
the flow of data in the system.
The Data Architect is typically responsible for defining the target state, aligning
during development and then following up to ensure enhancements are done in the
spirit of the original blueprint.
During the definition of the target state, the Data Architecture breaks a subject
down to the atomic level and then builds it back up to the desired form. The Data
Architect breaks the subject down by going through 3 traditional architectural processes:
- Conceptual - represents all business entities.
- Logical - represents the logic of how entities are related.
- Physical - the realization of the data mechanisms for a specific type of functionality.
Digital Rights Management
Digital rights management (DRM) is a class of access control technologies that are
used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with
the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any
technology that inhibits uses of digital content that are not desired or intended
by the content provider. DRM also includes specific instances of digital works or
devices. Companies such as Amazon, AT&T, AOL, Apple Inc., BBC, Microsoft, Electronic
Arts and Sony use digital rights management.
Master Data Management
MDM is a tool that removes duplicates and creates an authoritative source of master
data. Master data are the products, accounts and parties for which the business
transactions are completed. The root cause problem stems from business unit and
product line segmentation, in which the same customer will be serviced by different
product lines, with redundant data being entered about the customer (aka party in
the role of customer) and account in order to process the transaction. The redundancy
of party and account data is compounded in the front to back office life cycle,
where the authoritative single source for the party, account and product data is
needed but is often once again redundantly entered or augmented.
Cloud Architecture
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing and storage capacity as a service to
a heterogeneous community of end-recipients. The name comes from the use of a cloud-shaped
symbol as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams.
Cloud computing entrusts services with a user's data, software and computation over
a network.
There are three types of cloud computing:
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS),
- Platform as a Service (PaaS), and
- Software as a Service (SaaS).
Cloud Distribution Network
Introduction
Cloud computing
Infrastructure, Platform & Software As services
Security Architecture
These controls serve the purpose to maintain the system's quality attributes, among
them confidentiality, integrity, availability, accountability and assurance.
The unifying framework and reusable services that implement policy, standards, and
risk management decisions. The security architecture is a strategic framework that
allows the development and operations staff to align efforts, in addition the security
architecture can drive platform improvements which are not possible to make at a
project level. A given software development project may not be able to make a business
case to purchase an XML Security Gateway for improved web services security, but
at the architecture level, architects can potentially identify several projects
that could leverage such a reusable service. In this instance the security architecture
delivers improved XML/ Web services security, a simplified programming model for
developers, and saves development costs, because the wheel is not reinvented multiple
times.
Risk management, security policy and standards, and security architecture govern
the security processes and defense in depth architecture through design guidance,
runtime support, and assurance services. Security metrics are used for decision
support for risk management, security policy and standards, and security architecture.
The security architecture should have a reference implementation for developers
and other IT staff to review what functions the security mechanisms performs, and
how they do it.
SDL: Security functions as a collaborative design partner in the software development
lifecycle (SDL), from requirements, architecture, design, coding, deployment, and
withdrawal from service. Security adds value to the software development lifecycle
through prescriptive and proscriptive guidance and expertise in building secure
software. Security can play a role in all phases of the SDL, but an iterative, phased-based
integration of security into the SDL is the wisest path, each additional security
process improvement must fit with the overall SDL approach in the enterprise, which
vary widely. The DHS Build Security In portal defines process improvements that
enterprises can leverage throughout their SDL.4 Every security process added into
the SDL adds incremental expense to the developer’s time, so the enterprise security
group must wisely choose the artifacts and activities to add in the SDL.
As the overall Security Architecture and related components such as Identity Management
evolve over time, these security components and services should be baked into the
SDL in a prescriptive way – making it easier for developers to build secure software.
The diagram below shows an example approach for iterating through a number of security
artifacts and evolving the SDL over time. The goal is to identify reusable services
that, over time, can speed development of reliable software, for example building
reusable attack patterns that are implemented across a particular set of threats
like a set of web attack patterns that can be used for security design in any enterprise
web application.
Encryption
Encryption is the process of transforming data into an unintelligible form in such
a way that the original data either cannot be obtained or can be obtained only by
using a decryption process.
Data that is encrypted is referred to as ciphertext. Data that is not encrypted
is referred to as plaintext. The data that is encrypted into ciphertext is considered
securely secret from anyone who does not have the decryption key.
The following encryption algorithms exist:
Symmetric encryption algorithm
A common key is used to both encrypt and decrypt data. Therefore, the encryption
key can be calculated from the decryption key and the decryption key can be calculated
from the encryption key.
Asymmetric encryption algorithm
Two keys are used to encrypt and decrypt data. A public key that is known to everyone
and a private key that is known only to the receiver or sender of the message. The
public and private keys are related in such a way that only the public key can be
used to encrypt messages and only the corresponding private key can be used to decrypt
them.
Biometrics
Biometrics is the science and technology of measuring and analyzing biological data.
In information technology, biometrics refers to technologies that measure and analyze
human body characteristics, such as DNA, fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice
patterns, facial patterns and hand measurements, for authentication purposes.
Batch
The Batch Application Style is organized into four logical tiers, which include
Run, Job, Application, and Data. The primary goal for organizing an application
according to the tiers is to embed what is known as "separation of concerns" within
the system. These tiers can be conceptual but may prove effective in mapping the
deployment of the artifacts onto physical components like Java runtimes and integration
with data sources and targets. Effective separation of concerns results in reducing
the impact of change to the system. The four conceptual tiers containing batch artifacts
are:
- Run Tier: The Run Tier is concerned with the scheduling and launching of the application.
A vendor product is typically used in this tier to allow time-based and interdependent
scheduling of batch jobs as well as providing parallel processing capabilities.
- Job Tier: The Job Tier is responsible for the overall execution of a batch job.
It sequentially executes batch steps, ensuring that all steps are in the correct
state and all appropriate policies are enforced.
- Application Tier: The Application Tier contains components required to execute the
program. It contains specific tasks that address required batch functionality and
enforces policies around execution (e.g., commit intervals, capture of statistics,
etc.)
- Data Tier: The Data Tier provides integration with the physical data sources that
might include databases, files, or queues.
Mobile
Real-Time & Embedded
Architecture Concerns
System performance and scalability
System performance and scalability issues often have their roots in architectural
and design choices that are made early in the software life cycle. Because he must
communicate with developers, designers, product managers, business stake holders,
application domain experts, testers, and requirements engineers, the software architect
is uniquely placed to play a leadership role in linking performance requirements
to business and engineering needs. Ideally, the architectural, technology, and design
choices that are made should take performance requirements and artifacts into account.
This means that the architect should be equipped with at least a rudimentary understanding
of performance engineering concepts. Ideally, an architect should be directly involved
in performance concerns. Failing that, he should overtly give a mandate to and remain
in close contact with a performance engineer to do this instead, because close architectural
involvement with performance concerns is key to the success of the project.
Architecture Practices
Threading
Client design
Scaling
Service design
Concurrent Process
Web servers
Web servers are computers that deliver (serves up) Web pages. Every Web server has
an IP address and possibly a domain name
Any computer can be turned into a Web server by installing server software and connecting
the machine to the Internet. There are many Web server software applications, including
public domain software from NCSA and Apache, and commercial packages from Microsoft,
Netscape and others Document management system
Document management system
A document management system (DMS) is a computer system (or set of computer programs)
used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. It
is usually also capable of keeping track of the different versions modified by different
users (history tracking). The term has some overlap with the concepts of content
management systems. It is often viewed as a component of enterprise content management
(ECM) systems and related to digital asset management, document imaging, workflow
systems and records management systems.
Enterprise Application Integration
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is defined as the use of software and computer
systems architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications.
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is an integration framework composed of
a collection of technologies and services which form a middleware to enable integration
of systems and applications across the enterprise.
EAI can be used for different purposes:
- Data integration: Ensures that information in multiple systems is kept consistent.
This is also known as Enterprise Information Integration (EII).
- Vendor independence: Extracts business policies or rules from applications and implements
them in the EAI system, so that even if one of the business applications is replaced
with a different vendor's application, the business rules do not have to be re-implemented.
- Common facade: An EAI system can front-end a cluster of applications, providing
a single consistent access interface to these applications and shielding users from
having to learn to use different software packages.
Solutions Architect
A Solutions Architect will essentially need to take some key responsibilities during
the course of a project. Here are 6 key responsibilities/ roles that I think are
the most important ones -
- Solution delivery - The Solutions Architect (SA) is responsible for the delivery
of a particular solution on the date committed. At times, this is shared by a Project
Manager, but most often, the Solutions Architect is responsible
- Project Timelines/ Schedule - Its an SA's duty to make sure the project is progressing
in the right pace. The SA typically will work with the Project Manager to accomplish
this task
- Solution Architecture - The SA takes complete responsibility of the Solution Archtiecture.
Though, in the process, the Solutions Architect might consult the Integration/ Infrastructure
architects, the end product is owned by the SA
- A Consultant - The SA also dons the role of a consultant during the early phases
of the solution, when the SA needs to gather requirements and work with the sales
team to put together a document in return to a Request For Proposal (RFP) from the
customer
- Subject Matter Expert - The Solution Architect is also a key person who understands
the solution and the domain/ industry well. The Solution Architect needs to be a
Subject Matter Expert (SME) to be able to understand the customer's requirement
and also suggest alternatives to better the solution and alleviate the challenge/
issue being addressed
- A Leader - A Solution Architect needs to be a leader who can efficiently lead a
team of developers, project manager and effectively work with other business units
in the company and the customer team in the creation of the solution. The SA should
be able to work with the customer and help them envision the solution value, and
how it will benefit them in the longer term