Functional software architecture: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:53, 21 April 2007

Revision as of 11:32, 6 May 2007

Line 5:

When an integrated software system needs to be developed and implemented normally a number of tasks and corresponding responsibilities can be divided:

##Strategic management and business consultants set objectives in relation to a more efficient/ effective business process.

##Enterprise engineers come up with a design of a more efficient business process and a request for a certain information system in the form of an Enterprise Architecture.

##Software engineers come up with the design of this information system, which describes the components and structural features of the system by use of a certain Architecture Description Language (ADL).

##Computer programmers code the different modules and actually implement the system.

Of course, the described work division is in reality much more complex and also involves more actors but it outlines the involvement of people with different backgrounds in creating a software system that enables the organization to reach business objectives. A wide variety of material produced by different actors within this system development process needs to be exchanged between and understand by multiple actors.

Line 21:

This definition emphasizes the use of the architecture as a rich strategic information source for the improvement of business processes and development of needed information systems. If defined, maintained, and implemented effectively, these institutional blueprint assist in optimizing the interdependencies and interrelationships among an organizations business operations and the underlying IT that support operations.

Having read the definition of a Functional Software Architecture at the beginning of this entry we can see a Functional Software Architecture as a type of Enterprise Architecture that can be used as a rich reference for the development of an integrated information system. Naming it a Functional Software Architecture enforces practitioners to use it as a strategic input for a [[technical architecture]]. A formal mapping between a Functional Software Architecture and a type of [[ADL]] is therefore needed. In this way the formal use and reuse of enterprise architectures as strategic input for software architectures can be realized.

==Development of a FSA==