1-1-2 System Architectural Design Process

[Activities of system architectural design process] (i) Establishment of systems architecture (ii) Evaluation and review of systems architecture

(i) Establishing the architecture at the top level of the system

The system is functionally divided into the items of hardware, software, and manual operation at the top level of the system. At this time, it is necessary to confirm that all system requirements be allocated to any items. Hardware configuration items, software configuration items, and manual operations are clarified from these items. The systems architecture and the system requirements allocated to each item are documented in a system architectural design document. – In the functional decomposition, user work scope (i.e., manual operation) and others are considered from the perspective of operational efficiency, workload, and activity costs. – In hardware architectural design, fault tolerant design (e.g., redundancy) is considered along with the functional allocation and reliability allocation of servers, and configuration is determined. – In software architectural design, in-house development, use of software packages, middleware to be used, and others are considered, and configuration is determined. – In system processing architectural design, centralized processing / distributed processing, web systems, client/server systems, and others are considered, and processing methods are determined. – In database architectural design, the type of database to be used is determined from among RDB (Relational DataBases), NDB (Network DataBases), OODB (Object-Oriented DataBases), XML databases, and other databases. (ii) Development of user documentation (preliminary version) · 1 question

A preliminary version of user documentation is developed. User documentation is

documentation delivered to users together with systems. Examples include systems operation manuals and business operation manuals. (iii) Definition of test requirements for system integration

Provisional test requirements and a schedule for system integration are defined and documented. The scope of system integration test, test plans, test procedures, and other policies are determined. Then, a system integration test specification document is developed. This document includes test requirements to confirm whether the system fulfills functionality.

(i) Evaluation of systems architecture

The established systems architecture is evaluated, with consideration given to the criteria of traceability to system requirements, consistency with system requirements, appropriateness of design standards and methods used, feasibility of software items fulfilling their allocated requirements, and feasibility of operation and maintenance. (ii) Implementation of joint review of system architectural design

A joint review by the development department (i.e., supplier) and stakeholders (i.e., acquirer) is implemented, and agreement is obtained concerning system architectural design. · 2 questions