Match the interests of the parties with the technical requirements. When it comes to software architecture development, First and foremost, we envision classic technical operations: breaking the system into modules, defining interfaces, distributing responsibilities, applying templates, and optimizing performance. In addition, the architect must consider a number of other aspects, including issues of security, ease of use, maintainability, release management, deployment parameter selection, etc. But all the listed technical and procedural aspects must be aligned with the needs of stakeholders. Taking these interests into account when analyzing requirements is an excellent way to ensure the completeness of the specifications for the requirements of the product being developed.
All parties involved in the project have interests that affect both the software development process adopted in the organization and the organization as a whole. It is precisely the analysis of these interests that shapes the final set of priorities for the architect. One could say that creating architecture is a process of balancing priorities in both short-term and long-term perspectives within the existing context.
For example, let’s take the engineering and technical department of an organization that provides software development services. Most likely, this organization has certain priorities: fulfilling contractual obligations, generating revenue, maintaining a good reputation among clients, reducing costs, and creating valuable technical assets. These business priorities are transformed into departmental priorities: ensuring the functionality, correctness, and “quality attributes” of the developed product, as well as the productivity of the development team, the stability of the development process, the possibility of auditing it, the adaptability, and the longevity of the software products.
The work of an architect is not just to create a functional, high-quality software product for users, but to do so while maintaining a balance of interests among other parties – the company’s management (cost reduction), and the staff servicing the product. (ease of administration), future team members of programmers (the simplicity of learning and maintenance), as well as taking into account the experience accumulated by the professional community of architects. The architect can consciously shift the balance in favor of one of the priorities, but in the long term, for the work to be done really well, any distortions should be avoided. At the same time, the maintained balance must correspond to the existing context. taking into account factors such as the expected product lifecycle, the criticality of the product for the organization, and the company’s technical and financial culture.
In short, creating the architecture of a software product is not limited to just technical aspects; during the process, it is also necessary to find the right balance between technical requirements and the business requirements of all stakeholders.