In the first days of software development little thought was given to how the software applications and systems we built were architected. There were several reasons because of this: firstly, software development being new, the style hadn’t been considered, and secondly we didn’t realize how important architecture was to the cost of maintaining our applications and systems. Upon sober reflection, we probably should have foreseen the necessity for planned architecture and architects because building software isn’t radically distinctive from building any structure, for example buildings and bridges. We can’t return back and undo the damage done by the lack of foresight that led to badly architected applications and systems but as project managers we could avoid causeing the mistake within our next software development project.
Today most organizations whose core competencies include software development recognize the significance of architecture for their business and have satisfied this need by creating the role of architect and making this person in charge of the architecture of all the software applications and systems they develop. Even organizations whose core competencies don’t include software development, but who’ve invested heavily in IT, have created this role. These individuals may be known as the Chief Architect, Head Architect, or Strategic Architect. Wikipedia identifies 3 different types of architect with regards to the scope of the 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 comprised of a number of applications and hardware platforms, and the application architect whose responsibility is restricted to one application. The category and number of architects will often be constrained by the size of the business and the amount of applications and systems it supports. Whatever the business you benefit calls them, the software architect has a key role to play in your software project.
Your job as project manager of a pc software development project, where a pc software architect is in place, is to make sure that their work is properly defined and organized so that your top Miami architects project receives maximum benefit from their expertise. If the business does not have an architect in place you must identify someone in your team to fill that role. What is not acceptable is to plan the project without any acknowledgment of the necessity or significance of the architect. This role requires just as much knowledge of the device components as you possibly can, including software and hardware knowledge. Additionally it requires deep technical knowledge of the technology being used, both hardware and software and strong analytical skills. Anyone (other than a pc software architect) who almost certainly possesses a expertise such as this one, is a small business or systems analyst. Based upon the size and complexity of the existing system, and your project, existing skill sets may not be sufficient to meet your project’s needs. You will find ample training opportunities available so choose one that most closely suits your needs and have your candidate attend. If your project has adequate budget to pay for working out, fine. Or even, remember that the expertise acquired by the trainee will undoubtedly be open to the business after your project is completed and your project should not have to bear the full cost of the training.
Given that you’ve a qualified software architect engaged for the project, you need to plan that person’s tasks to take maximum advantage of the skills. I would suggest engaging the architect as in early stages in the project as you possibly can so that they can influence the meaning of the application or system being developed. The team that defines the business requirements to your project will undoubtedly be from the business side of the business and have deep knowledge of how the business runs but little knowledge of the existing systems and technical features of the hardware and software that’ll deliver the solution. Having a pc software architect available during requirements gathering exercises will allow you to 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 danger of re-engineering the perfect solution is to match existing architecture or avoid solution weaknesses, after the fact. Involve the software architect in requirements gathering exercises as a consultant or SME (subject matter expert) who will point out risks in defining requirements and offer alternative solutions.
The important thing deliverable your architect is in charge of could be the architectural drawing. This isn’t actually a drawing but a mixture of drawings and text. The drawings will represent the many components of the device and their relationship to 1 another. The text will describe data elements, relations between various architectural elements, and any standards designers must adhere to. The drawing might be a new anyone to represent a new system, or it may be an upgrade of an existing drawing to reflect the changes to an existing system created by your project. The development of the architectural drawing is the initial design activity in your project schedule. The drawing is used 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 tell them what features and functions to design and the architectural drawing to tell them how their software must fit together with other software in the device, any constraints the device places on their design, standards the new software must meet, and what critical data elements look like. The info in this drawing will depend on the perfect solution is chosen, the hardware chosen, the existing system and the complexity of the project. For example, projects having an Object Oriented solution will have 4 layers: an individual interface layer (the layer an individual sees), an application 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 a member of one’s project team and their design ought to be coordinated with the device architecture so your data elements in the architectural drawing are defined the exact same way since 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 using it, will deliver a method with poor performance so database design and architectural design should be inputs to one another 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 that individual isn’t the architect in your team. Oftentimes people other than another architect won’t have the capability to determine if the drawing contains all the information required by the project, or whether the device design is sound. They will have the ability to find out that each and every category of 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. When the drawing has been approved it should be communicated to the analysts that are in charge of producing design specifications.