Software Architecture Methodology

These practices can be used by software architects, project managers, developers, and business analysts in their activities in projects of various problem domains and technologies.

Theoretical material is supported with examples from contemporary tools, frameworks, environments, and also the instructor’s experience. The course includes both short exercises and comprehensive practice, carried out in groups of 3-4 people, starting from the problem’s background up to actual design of a software system. The training ends with a presentation of the results of each team activity and their examination in front of all other teams.

Train architects, system analysts, and technical leaders in software architecture design and analysis skills that can be used:

• In current projects to ensure quality of the system under development, solve problems, and manage customer’s expectations;
• In the design of new projects to start with an efficient and easy to evolve architecture;
• In pre-sale activities as a trigger for conducting analysis, elaborating preliminary design, and making estimates to decrease risks of a commercial offer.

1. Context, main concepts, analysis and design discipline overview, role of an architect
2. Project initiation: identifying stakeholders and business goals
3. Identifying, formalizing and prioritizing the requirements to system quality (main: performance and scalability, accessibility, security, changeability and other quality attributes)
4. Architectural design: decision-making, tactics, patterns, approaches and styles; typical tactics applied to achieve main quality characteristics
5. Documenting software architecture: the purpose and structure of architectural description; viewpoint-based approach and architectural views; detailed overview of the most popular viewpoints (4+1 and Rozansky&Woods), using modeling techniques in documenting; the prospects of applied tactics for achieving the desired system quality; using simplified description in pre-sale activities
6. Architectural analysis: formal process of architecture analysis and assessment involving stakeholders, identification of compromise solutions and architectural risks, further work with risks