Reference Architecture

By Avinash

Reference Architecture consist of information accessible to all teams within the organization that provides consistent set of architectural best practices.

Reference Architecture best

practices

Project 1

Project 2

Project n

Problem

• Many projects spend more time in researching, designing, studying, revalidating architecture in the initial phase.

• All project teams are not synchronized with each other with respect to common architectural patterns aligned with their technology, domain along with supporting artifacts.

According to RUP, reference architecture is predefined architectural pattern or a set of patterns, possibly partially or completely instantiated, designed and proven for use in particular business and technical contexts, together with supporting artifacts, to enable their use. Often these artifacts are harvested from previous projects.

Reference Architecture defined by RUP

In both the Inception and Elaboration phases, the RUP goes on to say, the team should consult its reference architecture as part of the Architectural Analysis activity for the new project.

Creation of reference architectures is an organizational issue and currently outside the scope of the RUP

The structure, content, and management of a reference architecture should be based on the organization's unique structure and needs.

Architecture Analysis Activity

4+1 Views of Architecture

Logical View(Functionality)

Process View(Performance, Scalability, Throughput)

Implementation View

(Development)

Deployment view(System Topology,

Delivery, Installation & Communication)

Use Case View(Requirements)

RUP suggests that, reference architecture should be defined along different levels of abstraction or views thereby providing more flexibility in how it can be used. Views from 4+1 views of architecture can be used as reference views.

Driving Forces for Reference Architecture

User Interface

Business

Middleware

System Software

Standards & Tools, Rich client, Presentation Services, View Models

Business Process Standards, Tools, Language

& Components

Transaction management, Integration,

Communication, Container Services, IPC

System Management, Operating Systems, Database management

Deriving Reference Architecture

• The system architecture pattern is defined as a high-level structure, appropriate to the design of the major components of a system, expressing the relation between the context, a problem, and a solution, documenting attributes, and usage guidance.

• They are time-proven in solving problems similar in nature to the problem under consideration.

• Seperation concept allows documenter to separate idea from reality, capturing more generalized concepts when documenting the pattern.

• Abstraction concept is the notion of removing detail from something complex to make it simpler to understand.

System Architecture Pattern

A Reference Architecture must be accessible and understandable for multiple stakeholders from engineers to business managers and customers. Therefore, the Reference Architecture must be concrete and provide specific information. The challenge is to create a Reference Architecture that is generic for multiple architectures and that is concrete and contains specific information at the same time.

Reference Architecture Management