In this phase of development, the software architects and designers look for tools and solutions to use in the development of the system. In addition, planning is done for the development of architecture tools and frameworks where no commercial or existing technology is sufficient.
Architectural design does not necessarily follow an object-oriented methodology. However, where development of architecture tools and frameworks is necessary, the architecture team should adhere to the chosen development methodology.
The architecture design phase will include the following tasks:
| definition of the types of frameworks, tools, libraries, utilities, and other components needed to support the development of the project and to meet the requirements specified in the functional specification. For example, detailed distributed platform framework, recovery framework and utilities, and redundancy framework and utilities. |
| evaluations of purchased or existing frameworks, tools, and libraries |
| simulation or prototypes of portions of the system to test and/or stress frameworks and tools. For example, simulation of incoming transactions to stress test the capacity and throughput of an object oriented database. |
| analysis and design of architecture components or frameworks that need to be built to support the development of the project |
Note: There are interdependencies between the architecture design and the detailed design. Because the detailed design uncovers additional architecture requirements, designers and documentation specialists should expect iteration in the architecture design. In reality, architecture design usually occurs in parallel with the analysis and detailed design phases of the software development life cycle.
| Functional specification |
| Analysis document |
| Detailed Design Plan template |
| System Architecture Design Template |
| Detailed system architecture design plan |
| System architecture design document |
| A formal review must be performed to ensure that the results of the system architecture design phase are consistent with the goals specified in the functional specification and business specification. |
| Regular reviews/workshops will also be necessary between those responsible for the system architecture design and the system architects from the other sub-system teams. These reviews will be for training and information flow, as well as for requirements and concerns to be communicated. |
| In addition to the formal review, the team responsible for the system architecture design should perform their own incremental reviews to ensure that they are staying on track or to determine that the earlier specifications may need revision. |
System architecture/framework team, system architects from all other development teams, and directors of development.
External consultants and vendors will also play an important part
in the system architecture design. The system architecture team is primarily responsible
for determining which consultants they may need and what type of assistance they need.
| The system framework/architecture team is responsible for planning their time within the parameters of the development plan. Specifically, each team should set up finer grain milestones for completing portions of their assignments. Iteration should be considered and planned for as well. The team leader will be responsible for ensuring that each team member is on schedule and progressing as planned. |
| In additional to planning time and resource allocation, the system framework team is responsible for determining their need for outside consultants and vendor support. |
| The detailed system architecture design plan will be approved by the directors of development. |
| Primarily, the system architecture design document will record the results of the analysis, evaluations, stress testing, and decisions made as to which frameworks, tools, libraries, etc. will be required for the development of the system. |
| Second, the system architecture design document will define the frameworks and tools that need to be developed to support the development and deployment of the project. This portion of the of the document should refer to the separate analysis and design documents that will be developed by the system framework team to define these frameworks and tools. |
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