There is a fundamental difference between a good architecture and the right architecture for a given system. In our experience there is no such thing as a one size fits all architecture, so it is important that a project team fundamentally understands the requirements and constraints of a system to properly identify its architectural drivers, and define a proper fitness function to guide architectural principles & patterns and technology adoption. We see many organisation select architectures which are full of industry best practice but are in reality a poor fit for their project, leading to significant under / over engineering. The consequence of which are systems which are hard to deliver, hard to maintain and expensive to run.
Silvertouch Technology will review your software architecture and provide practical advice and support on how to improve, doing so with a set of clear and actionable recommendations.
What to you assess?
We start by properly understanding the requirements for the system and the constraints applied (business, technical, political). We will assess these to determine a fitness function for the architecture which will allow us to validate architectural decisions and technology selection. In doing so, we score architectural quality metrics (security, performance, scalability, extensibility etc.) based upon the requirements and constraints. For example, security is clearly a high priority in an e-commerce systems which stores customer’s payment details or in a medical system which stores patient records, but would be less of a concern on a government system serving public domain information to citizens.
As part of the assessment we will:
- understand architectural driver and define a fitness function.
- assess technology selection
- assess how the architecture has been proven as fit for purpose
- assess the road-map for delivering and evolving the architecture
- assess the quality assurance process which ensuring architectural principles and constraints have been adhered to in delivery
- provide a set of actionable recommendations, along with resource to help you implement those if needed
Applying architecture in an agile world…
The architecture assessment described above helps you understand and consider the appropriateness of the architecture you have built / are planning to build. However, we find many clients struggle to understand how to apply architecture effectively in an agile world. Because of this, our architecture assessment also examines how you apply architecture within a programme / project. Providing practical actionable recommendations on how to streamline your application of architecture to ensure the correct architecture is identified, the key elements are established early to enable rapid delivery of business value, but whilst managing risk and promoting flexibility and agility.
Silvertouch Technology can help…
Our consultants understand the political, business and technical challenges an organisation will face when apply architecture in agile environments, and we use this experience to help you maximise your investment in architecture and agile. Contact us today to arrange an architectural assessment.