Not all the applications need a architectural thinking. If you are building a product that has to stand the test of time or go for a long innings then you better get an architectural underpinning for that. If it means a large number of end users or it is going to run on the cloud, then it is a must to have this aspect nailed down. Most of the web scale products we see like Google or Amazon platform would not have been developed with a scalable architecture on day one.
But what I have seen is, even if you want an architecture underlying your software, and even if some one is deputed on that task from day one, the final architecture is proven only when it meets the desired scale, performance, flexibility over time. This will not happen in the initial days or months.
Architecture cannot be fixed in the initial weeks or months of a product and then onwards we can see the product following the same. It is absolutely not possible. Of course, the initial structure of the product can be laid out based on the requirements available at that time. However, as we have seen, requirements are not cast in stone. It is almost close to making the writing on water. It changes over time so drastically. There is nothing wrong about it if you leave out the 'get me this out by Monday' type of pronouncements. That's the way things are. In a way the 'agile' methods make more sense to the sponsors due to this. They do not need to wait infinitely to see the product in its full glory. Because requirements can change, architecture, design changes, implementation changes, if some one decide to wait for the first perfect release it becomes a mythical thing. So, give me value for the money I put in. Show me something that is in tune with the current stated requirement. That seem to be the mantra. In a way, the architecture also has to be moving in this path. It is true that architecture cannot be so damn fluctuating as a product evolves. The basic structure should be in place to address the key concerns. Then it is a matter of how course corrections are done to accomodate the NFRs like performance, scalability etc. That does not mean the initial architecture focuses on functionality only. Functionality should be obviously addressed. But care should be taken to ensure non-functional aspects like performance is also discussed even in initial stages.
So it becomes important to focus on the key concerns and what could they be?
Before even looking at technical or technological considerations, some of the key aspects that has to be understood as a architect is
- What kind of audience will be using this product?
In most cases, applications are used by people who may be well versed in the business domain. For example, if it is a application that automates the processes in a automobile manufacturing industry the product should be talking about their final product which are the cars and how things move around to get the processes involved in getting a car ready. The domain people who are well versed in a manual setting in manufacturing a car are the audience, apart from administrators who are a little bit more tech savvy and who may define workflows or rules or the CEO who is more interested in a summary outcome. Thus it is important to understand these people who will expect different things from the product you give out. The product should be able to meet all of these diverse view points and their skill or capability to comprehend out of the product and map it to their own needs. You cannot ask a supervisor of the plant to define rules. This has to be done by some one who is computer savvy, trained to handle the rules and processes. The CEO cannot be asked to define rules as well :-)
These are very finer details not touching any of the details of the product you make but more from the view points of its users.
- The ecosystem where the product will be deployed
Normally with tiered architectures, the deployment is going to be clients and server side. However, there could be people on the move such as salesmen or people who need to monitor things around the manufacturing facility. This may require mobility involving smart phones or tablets and others. This will impact the amount of data you can push around or other latency considerations. The product may have to be running on multiple sites across a country with local caching and ability to handle synchronize it with a centralized DB. The product may be a carrier grade one requiring geographical redundancy requiring the architecture to bring in questions early on during architecture definition such as the choice of cache or messaging technologies.
Will discuss more in the next blog..
Architecture cannot be fixed in the initial weeks or months of a product and then onwards we can see the product following the same. It is absolutely not possible. Of course, the initial structure of the product can be laid out based on the requirements available at that time. However, as we have seen, requirements are not cast in stone. It is almost close to making the writing on water. It changes over time so drastically. There is nothing wrong about it if you leave out the 'get me this out by Monday' type of pronouncements. That's the way things are. In a way the 'agile' methods make more sense to the sponsors due to this. They do not need to wait infinitely to see the product in its full glory. Because requirements can change, architecture, design changes, implementation changes, if some one decide to wait for the first perfect release it becomes a mythical thing. So, give me value for the money I put in. Show me something that is in tune with the current stated requirement. That seem to be the mantra. In a way, the architecture also has to be moving in this path. It is true that architecture cannot be so damn fluctuating as a product evolves. The basic structure should be in place to address the key concerns. Then it is a matter of how course corrections are done to accomodate the NFRs like performance, scalability etc. That does not mean the initial architecture focuses on functionality only. Functionality should be obviously addressed. But care should be taken to ensure non-functional aspects like performance is also discussed even in initial stages.
So it becomes important to focus on the key concerns and what could they be?
Before even looking at technical or technological considerations, some of the key aspects that has to be understood as a architect is
- What kind of audience will be using this product?
In most cases, applications are used by people who may be well versed in the business domain. For example, if it is a application that automates the processes in a automobile manufacturing industry the product should be talking about their final product which are the cars and how things move around to get the processes involved in getting a car ready. The domain people who are well versed in a manual setting in manufacturing a car are the audience, apart from administrators who are a little bit more tech savvy and who may define workflows or rules or the CEO who is more interested in a summary outcome. Thus it is important to understand these people who will expect different things from the product you give out. The product should be able to meet all of these diverse view points and their skill or capability to comprehend out of the product and map it to their own needs. You cannot ask a supervisor of the plant to define rules. This has to be done by some one who is computer savvy, trained to handle the rules and processes. The CEO cannot be asked to define rules as well :-)
These are very finer details not touching any of the details of the product you make but more from the view points of its users.
- The ecosystem where the product will be deployed
Normally with tiered architectures, the deployment is going to be clients and server side. However, there could be people on the move such as salesmen or people who need to monitor things around the manufacturing facility. This may require mobility involving smart phones or tablets and others. This will impact the amount of data you can push around or other latency considerations. The product may have to be running on multiple sites across a country with local caching and ability to handle synchronize it with a centralized DB. The product may be a carrier grade one requiring geographical redundancy requiring the architecture to bring in questions early on during architecture definition such as the choice of cache or messaging technologies.
Will discuss more in the next blog..
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