Industrial Implementation of a Documentation Framework for Architectural Decisions

Architecture decisions are often not explicitly documented in practice but reside in the architect's mind as tacit knowledge, even though explicit capturing and documentation of architecture decisions has been associated with a multitude of benefits. As part of a research collaboration with ABB, we developed a tool to document architecture decisions. This tool is an add-in for Enterprise Architect and is an implementation of a viewpoint-based decision documentation framework. To validate the add-in, we conducted an exploratory case study with ABB architects. In the study, we assessed the status quo of architecture decision documentation, identified architects' expectations of the ideal decision documentation tool, and evaluated the new add-in. We found that although awareness of decision documentation is increasing at ABB, several barriers exist that limit the use of decisions in practice. Regarding their ideal tool, architects want a descriptive and efficient approach. Supplemental features like reporting or decision sharing are requested. The new add-in, was well-perceived by the architects. As a result of the study, we propose a clearer separation of problem, outcomes, and alternatives for the decision documentation framework

Tietoarkkitehtuurin laajentaminen Big Data teknologioilla

Tässä pro gradu -tutkielmassa tavoitteena oli luoda referenssiarkkitehtuuri Big Data -teknologioita hyödyntäen sensoridatan vastaanottamiseksi ja käsittelemiseksi. Luotavan referenssiarkkitehtuurin oli tarkoitus laajentaa olemassa olevaa tietoarkkitehtuuria sensoriaineiston käsittelyn vaatimilla komponenteilla. Nykyinen tietoarkkitehtuuri koostuu operatiivisesta tietokannasta ja tietovarastosta, johon tiedot historioidaan raportoinin tarpeisiin. Toiminnallisena taustana muutokselle on ympäristöterveydenhuollon järjestelmäuudistus. Uuden järjestelmän yhdeksi tavoitteeksi on asetettu sensoridatan käytön lisääminen. Elintarviketurvallisuuden osalta ilmeisin vaihtoehto on Eviran asiantuntijoiden mukaan ravintoloiden kylmätilojen lämpötilan ja kosteuden mittaaminen. Sensoriaineistoa arvioitiin tulevan niin paljon, että sen käsittely ei tietoarkkitehtuurin nykyisillä ratkaisulla olisi mahdollista. Tapauksen pohjalta luotiin vaatimusluettelo ja sen tueksi kerätiin olennaiset kohdat nykyisen järjestelmätoimittajan arkkitehtuuriperiaatteista. Ratkaisua haluttiin etsiä Big Data -teknologioista ja erityisesti reaaliaikaiseen tiedonkäsittelyn mahdollistavista tietovirtojen käsittelyyn suunnatuista teknologioista. Työ on luonteeltaan konstruktiivinen. Siinä luotiin referenssiarkkitehtuuri, joka arvioitiin DCAR-mentelmällä. Arkkitehtuurin rakentamista taustoitettiin teknologiakartoituksella tietovirtojen käsittelyyn tarkoitetuista Big Data -teknologioista. Referenssiarkkitehtuuri kuvatiin JHS-179 -standardilla. Toteutettu kokonaisuus sisältää kuvaukset toiminta, tieto-, tietojärjestelmä ja teknologia-arkkitehtuureista

Infraestructura como código : Caso de estudio: Cientópolis

En el trabajo se evalúa, en un caso de estudio concreto, la aplicabilidad e impacto de los principios de infraestructuras como código en la calidad de las arquitecturas de proyectos de investigación e innovación tecnológica, y en los procesos de gestión de las mismas. Se diseña e implementa una arquitectura nueva para el proyecto Cientópolis utilizando Ansible.Facultad de Informátic

Techniques and Practices for Software Architecture Work in Agile Software Development

Since the publishing of Agile Manifesto in 2001, the agile software development has taken the world by storm. Agile software development does not emphasize the importance of software architecture, even though software architecture is often seen as a key factor for achieving the quality goals set for the software system. It has been even said that agile software development and software architecture are a clash of two cultures.In many software projects there is no need to consider software architecture anymore. For example, when designing a mobile application, the ecosystem forces the developer to use certain architecture style provided by the platform. In web development ready-made frameworks and project templates are available offering complete software architecture designs for the application developer.There are still domains and systems where careful architecture design is needed. When developing complex systems or systems with a long lifecycle, diligent software architecture design is a key to avoid massive rework during the development. It cannot be a coincidence that companies developing these kinds of systems struggle with agile software development the most.On the one hand, the goal of this thesis was to study software architecture practices used in agile software development in the industry. On the other hand, the goal was to develop new methods and techniques to support incremental software architecture working practices which can be aligned with agile methods such as Scrum. The study applied case study, interviews and design science as the main research methods.The results show that there are four main ways to carry out software architecture work while using agile methods. Basing on this result, models for aligning software architec-ture knowledge management were developed. These models can be used as guidelines for selecting the appropriate software architecture practices in an organization.As a part of the research work, an architecture knowledge repository was developed for sharing the knowledge in agile projects and for automatic software architecture document generation. Additionally, the results of this study show that by taking a decision-centric approach to software architecture evaluation, the evaluation method can be lightweight enough to make incremental evaluation a viable option. Similarly, existing software architecture evaluation methods can be boosted to fit agile software development by utilizing domain knowledge

University of Groningen Forces on Architecture Decisions -A Viewpoint Forces on Architecture Decisions -A Viewpoint

Abstract-In this paper, the notion of forces as influences upon architecture decisions is introduced. To facilitate the documentation of forces as a part of architecture descriptions, we specify a decision forces viewpoint, which extends our existing framework for architecture decisions, following the conventions of the international architecture description standard ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010. The applicability of the viewpoint was validated in three case studies, in which senior software engineering students used it to document decisions in software projects; two of which conducted for industrial customers. The results show that the forces viewpoint is a well-received documentation approach, satisfying stakeholder concerns related to traceability between decision forces and architecture decisions