Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
About Part III
Building on the viewpoint structure, this part examines a
number of ways in which requirements can vary, and shows how
system designs can be made more resilient and more broadly
applicable by applying suitable architectural techniques.
To set the stage, chapter 8 explores the concepts of com-
pliance and conformance, which provide the bridges between
architecture, design and implementation. It shows how the
different levels of design can flow through naturally into con-
formance assessment and testing.
Following this, a series of chapters each examine different
kinds of variation and how they can be coped with. Chapter 9
looks at variation in the environment in which the system may
be deployed, and how the use of transparencies can decouple
the application-specific concerns from these variations. Chap-
ter 10 looks at the way changes in management thinking can
be accommodated by using the idea of mutable policies.
The following chapters, dealing with the federation of dif-
ferent organizations, incorporation of existing components and
response to changes in requirements, each look at different
ways the architectural framework can enable the smooth evo-
lution of systems. These aspects are all concerned with the
way systems change over time, and how the lifetime of a de-
sign can be extended in a changing environment.
