33.8. Summary of Themes in Architectural Analysis
The first theme to note is that "architectural" concerns are especially related to non-functional requirements, and include an awareness of the business or market context of the application. At the same time, the functional requirements (for example, processing sales) cannot be ignored; they provide the context within which these concerns must be resolved. Further, identification of their variability is architecturally significant.A second theme is that architectural concerns involve system-level, large-scale, and broad problems whose resolution usually involves large-scale or fundamental design decisions; for example, the choice ofor even use ofan application server.A third theme in architectural analysis is interdependencies and trade-offs. For example, improved security may affect performance or usability, and most choices affect cost.A fourth theme in architecture analysis is the generation and evaluation of alternative solutions. A skilled architect can offer design solutions that involve building new software, and also suggest solutions (or partial solutions) using commercial or publicly available software and hardware. For example, recovery in a remote server of the NextGen POS can be achieved through designing and programming "watchdog" processes, or perhaps through clustering, replication, and fail-over services offered by some operating system and hardware components. Good architects know third-party hardware and software products.The opening definition of architectural concerns provides the framework for how to think about the subject of architecture: identifying the issues with large-scale or system-level implications, and resolving them.
Definition Architectural analysis is concerned with the identification and resolution of the system's non-functional requirements in the context of the functional requirements. |