Architecture Management

View Description Charter

Architecture Management (AM) is all about the evolution of the ideas and requirements driving the business needs and seeing them fulfilled in the applications and systems created by coordinated development teams. These activities include traditional planning, analysis, design and construction, and governance. However the emphasis is shifted to the driving business factors, and to the management of cross project and enterprise-level concerns. It also is concerned with how to do this in a constantly evolving environment. Architecture management strives to maintain the architectural integrity of solutions amid the constant churn of requirements, technology and business factors.

The tools of architecture management include those used in requirements management and change management and they introduce modeling as a first class artifact in the ALM story.

Architecture Management Charter

Scope

The scope of the Architecture Management workgroup includes scenarios involving the use of architecture and design related resources.  These resources include models and other design time artifacts that are abstractions of the runtime systems they describe and are used to develop. There is a wide variety of architecture related types of resources and uses for such resource types. Some resource types like UML and BMPN models have open standards defining them.  Some development organizations may define their own set of design time architectural resources, unique to their own organization and set of constraints.  Regardless of specific types of types of resources involved, the Architecture Management workgroup remains focused on those resources involved in the design and architecture phases of the software development lifecycle.  This includes resource properties and types, but also includes common usages of the resources including transformations and simulations.

Deliverables

The Architecture Management workgroup will define concrete and abstract resource types compatible with known and defined industry standard resources. It will provide guidelines and usage patterns for applying these resources in common design time activities.

Relationship to other activities and workgroups

The Architecture Management workgroup will adopt OSLC Core specifications where ever possible. It is very important for OSLC Architecture Management service providers to act and behave in a way that is compatible with other OSLC Core derived providers.

The Architecture Management domain is closely aligned with the Requirements Management domain, as both are abstract representations of features or components of the application under development. RM focuses on features and measurable outcomes of the external system, whereas Architecture Management focuses on the internal components and structure of the system under development. The resources in the Architecture Management domain tend to be more technical and often are compliant with other specifications like UML or BPMN.

For more information, see the Workgroup Best Practices.

Target Specification Development Organizations (SDOs)

Specifications developed by this WG may be contributed to these SDOs:

This contribution to these SDOs is dependent on maturing the specifications within this WG and gaining consensus on the contribution. At that point, the WG would make a proposal to the OSLC Steering Committee for such a move. For more information, see the Workgroup Best Practices.

Participation

Participants in the Architecture Management workgroup may be interested in either developing applications and services that integrate with other OSLC service providers and clients, or consuming and directly working with the resources and services of an OSLC Architecture Management provider. Participants are expected provide, contribute and collaborate over Architecture Management usage scenarios. They are expected to contribute to the definition of resource types. Participants may petition for new topics, related to the core scope of the workgroup, to be discussed.

Meetings Frequency and Communications

All participants are expected to sign up to the email list and read the messages from this list. When possible participants are asked to join and engage in our bi-weekly general meeting, where we discuss the latest topics of interest to the group, and get an update of any relevant activities going on in the core and other workgroups. Time constraints may prohibit participation in the bi-weekly meetings is not required, however it is recommended. The workgroup will be flexible in scheduling of its meetings to accommodate those participants spread out over the various time zones.

Decision Policy

The Architecture Management workgroup deliverables will align itself with the OSLC core and other related workgroups. Shortly after the Core declares another version of its specification and recommendations, the Architecture Management workgroup will finalize its own additions and changes to its specification. Decisions will be consensus based and confirmed through use of the email list. The workgroup lead will ensure that all active participants are made aware of any finalized changes to the specification.

Inactivity on the part of any participant will not hold up the development and finalization of changes and new versions of the Architecture Management specification; however every effort will be made to engage those who are temporarily unable to participate in email and conference call deliberations.

Intellectual property

Members of this Workgroup agree to this Workgroup Participation Agreement.