architectural thinking - what is architecture?

Architectural Thinking What is Architecture? Ingo Arnold

WHAT Dimension WHAT Fundamental definitions WHY Motivation and requirements WHERE Views and perspectives WHEREBY Means and techniques WHO Roles and organisations HOW Methodologies and processes

What do we deal with by the way?

We

Plan & Define

Architect & establish

Maintain & operate

our Companys Information System


What is a Company Information System?

Flight Booking System @ Lufthansa, Germany, mid 60ies


A Company Information System is comprised of ...

Processes



Function points and applications



Data, Data Structures and Data Containers (Folders, Binders et al)



Some sorts of technological infrastructure and underpinnings


What has changed is that ...

Things have taken off the ground

... and become ...

Virtual

Clonable

Shippable

Configurable

Investigable

Deletable

.. far beyond what was possible in the things world of the mid 60ies

Architecture is not new

The Solution Architect in the 60ies had to arrange processes, data, applications, tools, spaces and other means, fundamental to the given business models

Architecture is not new

similar to what the Solution Architects have to in 2008

... just the means changed a bit in the meantime

Architectural disorientation Why bother?

Architectural disorientation

What is architecture?

What are you expected to do as an architect?

How is architecture manifested?

A tube A brush


How do you distinguish good from bad architecture?

Where and when does architecture occur?

Why is architecture to be developed why is it useful?

Whereby is architecture developed?

Who is responsible for architecture?

How do you approach architecture?

What do you need to know as an architect?

Software is complex and IT is everchanging!

If we continued to protect our assets as we did in 16th century,



our landscape nowadays would look like this



but it does not!


Architecture evolves in its context Barcelona


All too often reality

We start with a wish list.

What follows is a concept.

A first pilot is implemented.

The pilot goes life.

Changes are required.

To implement the changes we need to deviate from the original concept.


Software architectecture was created:

Big Ball of Mud-Pattern In computer programming, Big Ball of Mud is a term for a system or computer program that has no real distinguishable architecture. It usually includes more than one of the other anti-patterns.

All too often reality Maintaining a shantytown is labor-intensive and requires a broad range of skills. One must be able to improvise repairs with the materials on-hand, and master tasks from roof repair to ad hoc sanitation. However, there is little of the sort of skilled specialization that one sees in a mature economy.

All too often reality All too many of our systems are, architecturally, little more than shantytowns. Investment in tools and infrastructure is too often inadequate. Tools are usually primitive, and infrastructure such as libraries and frameworks, is undercapitalized. Individual portions of the system grow unchecked, and the lack of infrastructure and architecture allows problems in one part of the system to erode and pollute adjacent portions.

Question 4 you

What are symptoms of bad architecture?

Symptoms of immature architectures

Results of analysis phase are not adequately considered.

Holistic view of IT-System is missing.

Complexity increases and becomes unmanageble.

Planning and risk-management becomes difficult.

Reuse of expertise as well as system building blocks is difficult.

Flexibility, maintainability, interoperability become a problem.

Architecture documentation is missing or not up-to-date.

Steep learning curve for new staff entering the project.

Symptoms of immature architectures

Redundancy of code and functionality.

Systems building blocks are heavily interdependent.

Very long development and change cycles.

Symptoms of immature architectures System complexity Architecture relevance


Have you ever seen or touched Architecture?

.. even here ..


We believe No ..

Design-time Perspective System Perspective (Physics)


Architecture is an inherent aspect of any system

But you cant see nor can you touch it on the system level

Architecture is tangible only on the level of models and plans

Architecture is mainly about quality .. not functionality

Architecture has a mid- to long-term ROI .. you cannot avoid it

Architecture Perspective (Models & Plans)


Architecture of a computer or IT-system is not immediately tangible. Nevertheless does every IT-system have an architecture

There are many architecture definitions out there, which are typically comprised of the following aspects:

Structure

Behaviour and collaboration of architectural building blocks

Discipline and methodology

Architecture covers everything .. from a systems problem domain analysis phase up to this systems retirement

Architecture makes complexity manageable by focussing onto only the substantial aspects of an IT-system

System People


An Architecture defines behavior


An Architecture Balances Stakeholder Needs

The needs of the end user are associated with intuitive and correct behavior, performance, reliability, usability, availability, and security.

The needs of the system administrator are associated with intuitive behavior, administration, and tools to aid monitoring.

The needs of the marketer are associated with competitive features, time to market, positioning with other products, and cost.

The needs of the customer are associated with cost, stability, and schedule.

The needs of the developer are associated with clear requirements and a simple, consistent design approach.

The needs of the project manager are associated with predictability in the tracking of the project, schedule, productive use of resources, and budget.

The needs of the maintainer are associated with a comprehensible, consistent, and documented design approach, as well as the ease with which modifications can be made


An Architecture May Conform to an Architectural Style

Every well-structured software-intensive system is full of patterns. (Booch 2009)

An architectural style defines a family of systems in terms of a pattern of structural organization. More specifically, an architectural style defines a vocabulary of components and connector types, and a set of constraints on how they can be combined. (Shaw 1996)

An Architecture is influenced by its environment

Architecture is not concerned with a systems fine grained structures and elements (i.e. classes, objects, algorithms) but instead with such systems coarse-grained components and building blocks


Architecture is concerned with all decisions which are difficult to be changed later on

Architecture is more than just the result of an architects design-activities architecture is a science in its own right

Architecture and Design are two sides of the same coin:

All respective activities, decision making, ways of thinking are no different at all

Architectural Decisions just have a wide ranging impact (across the system)

Design decisions have a rather local and isolated scope (e.g. sub-system)

Architecture aims at sustaining investments

United Nations Sustainability Sustainability means meeting the needs of the presence without compromising the needs of the future


Architecture is concerned with Macro-Structures of a system. Well, here the question remains: what are such macro-structures?

For example, lock-strategies for persistence-stores

or addressing schema length (e.g. 32-bit versus 64-bit) seem pretty low-level technical at a first glance

However, if they have a significant impact on the systems ability to evolve and scale over time they are architectural


Architecture contributes to the non-functional capabilities of our systems, where investments are vital & crucial but also have a diminishing ROI

What is architecture? Well and there are a few more ;-)

First we make our Systems then our Systems make us

We make Software like we make cathedrals first we make them and then we pray


By looking at systems & system architectures the values and maximes by which an organisation lives can easily be derived

This is similar to archaeology, where the experts derive cultural & behavioural specifics by artefacts found centuries later


Do we all really well understand what we do always?

A fool with a tool is still a fool ( you know that)

A fool with a tool is an armed fool ( even worse)

engine doesnt run anymore Well maybe some fuel?! Lets have a deeper look into there


Do we all really well understand what we do always?

A tool with a fool is still a fool ( you know that)

A tool with a fool is an armed fool ( even worse)

Not a good idea!!!

What is architecture? The spirit of architecture

Whats so cool about the SAPs of this world?

Company A Company B Company C 20 % customizing 80 % COTS


Frameworks are applied architecture

Hollywood principle ( dont call us we call you )

Architecture constraints it controls potential developer-freedom based on a systems fundamental structures (e.g. backbone process logic).



Architecture guides.

Architecture reduces complexity by offering dedicated extension points.

Architecture frees up developers from architectural decision making (i.e. Backbone process logic).



The SAP system is an HR generic process expert.

is an expert in their specific HR process requirements.

The overall architecture balances these forces and allows for both, controlled evolution and governance, as well as flexibility.

Example

Architecture Definition

The software architecture of a program or computing system is the structure or structures of the system, which comprise software components, the externally visible properties of those components, and the relationships among them [Bass et al]


Architecture is concerned with ...

the structure and structure(s) of a system ..

its individual building blocks or components ..

their externally visible properties ..

as well as their relationships amongst these.


Architecture is concerned with the main pillars of a computer-system not with this systems details ..


.. but what the main pillars are, depends on viewpoint and perspective!

Solution context A Solution context B


.. but what the main pillars are, depends on viewpoint and perspective!


Architecture contributes to the non-functional capabilities ( qualities) of a system as well as to its longevity

Extensibility ( Quickly add PDF as a new UI channel )

Adaptability and changebility ( Add the role Supervisor to our system )

Reusability ( Reuse the Shopping Cart we developed for our portal )

Managability ( Grant the aquired companys employees access to S )

Security ( Encrypt all data that goes into this database )

Availability ( Make sure the service is always up and running )

Scalability ( A marketing campaign is going to increase load on Site S )

Performance ( S is only used if search-result response time is below x )


Architecture shows the holistic whole only if all appropriate views are combined.

Function / Process View Stakeholder View Component View Operational View Deployment View Host and operate Package and deploy Implement Function Serve Function 1 Function 2 Function 3


Architecture shows the holistic whole only if all appropriate views are combined .. but this should be done in order ..


Architecture shows the holistic whole only if all appropriate views are combined .. as shown here (Aarau Photo)


Architecture shows the holistic whole only if all appropriate views are combined .. as shown here (Aarau Model)


Architecture shows the holistic whole only if all appropriate views are combined .. as shown here (Public Transport)


Architecture shows the holistic whole only if all appropriate views are combined .. as shown here (Denisity of Populat.)


Architecture shows the holistic whole only if all appropriate views are combined .. as shown here (Buffer Zones)


Architecture shows the holistic whole only if all appropriate views are combined .. Zoom-Level is similarily important ..


Architecture shows the holistic whole only if all appropriate views are combined .. as filters ..


Architecture needs to be managed

One System

Many Systems


Architecture needs to be managed over time

Yesterday ..

Tomorrow


IT-Systems become increasingly more complex, which naturally leads to more specialised architectural domains and disciplines:

Enterprise-Architecture.

Software-Architecture.

Data-Architecture.

Integration-Architecture.

Network-Architecture.

Security-Architecture.

System-Management-Architecture.

Etc.

One singular IT-System requires its overall architecture to take into consideration most if not all of the above listed areas and disciplines.

Architect

The Architect

is a Technical Leader

role may be fulfilled by a team

understands the system development process

has knowledge of his business or technology domain

has technology knowledge

has design skills

has programming skills

is a good communicator

makes decisions by balancing tradoffs

is aware of organisations politics

is a negotiator

Architecting

Architecting

is an art

spans multiple disciplines

is an ongoing activity

is driven by many stakeholders

often involves making tradeoffs

acknowledges experience

is both top-down and bottom-up

Architecting The benefits of Architecting

The benefits of Architecting

it addresses system qualities

it drives consensus

it supports the planning process

it drives architectural integrity

it helps manage complexity

it provides a basis for reuse

it reduces maintenance costs

it supports impact analysis