Asset Management Scenarios - Architect

These scenarios focus on ways that an Architect can specify & publish assets, and also how other users, Architects, Designers, or Developers, can consume those assets.

Roles

In these scenarios there are two major roles, asset submitter and asset consumer.

• Asset Submitter: performs asset preparation activities outlined in the publish scenario. For these scenarios, the submitter will be an Architect.
• Asset Consumer: performs asset searching and retrieval activities outlined in the search and retrieve scenarios. For these scenarios the consumer can be anyone consuming Architecture assets.

Security / Access Rights

In these scenarios it is assumed the asset submitter and the asset consumer have already provided user authentication. This means they are not providing user information as they publish an asset or as they search or retrieve assets. It is expected that the asset repository will determine that context from previous information provided by the respective user.

Publish

Publish Reference Architecture Scenario Example

An Architect has been developing a Reference Architecture that has reached a state where they are ready to share the Architecture with the development teams. They have been doing all of their work in a modeling environment, such as Rational Software Architect. The Architect selects that they are ready to publish the Reference Architecture to the asset repository. The modeling tool provides a way to select what items should be packaged together to form the asset. The Architect selects one or morel models and/or projects of other types that document the Reference Architecture and the points of variability. The Architect the provides necessary metadata, such as:

• Name
• Description
• Depencencies on other assets
• Context for using Reference Architecture
• Whether the Architecture is recommended or required

Search

Search For Reference Architecture Scenario Example

Background

The asset information and workproducts provided in the Publish scenario provide the basis for searching and browsing.

In the search scenario the Asset Consumer uses asset information to search for the asset. They are developing a new system and need to find a Reference Architecture that matches their type of system. They are in a modeling environment, such as Rational Software Architect, and select that they would like to find a Reference Architecture. The modeling tool collects the search parameters such as the context of the desired application, keywords, etc.

The set of searchable assets are constrained by the access rights of the asset consumer; which means that another asset consumer with different access rights while using the same search parameters may have a different result set.

The search returns the search result for the provided search parameters and user access rights. The Asset Consumer browses the asset information on the search result (i.e., browses the asset meta data). The service artifacts are NOT downloaded during this scenario; but are downloaded as part of the Retrieve scenario.

Retrieve

Retrieve Reference Architecture Scenario Example

Background

In this scenario, the Asset Consumer is developing a new system and has found a Reference Architecture that they would like to retrieve into their modeling tool and start developing a new system, using the Reference Architecture as a starting point. They select the desired Reference Architecture and the modeling environment retrieves the Reference Architecture and makes a new instance of it. The Asset Consumer then uses the modeling tool to iterate through the variability points and select the correct options for the new system. The modeling environment creates a new asset in the repository for this instantiation of the Reference Architecture. It captures the variability and creates traceability to the Reference Architecture. The Asset Consumer the proceeds to develop the system.

Generic Scenarios