Tier Diagram

Definition

A tier diagram is a top-level architecture diagram work product that documents the physical tiers of an application, contact center, or data center.

Objectives

The typical objectives of a tier diagram is to:

• Summarize the overall physical architecture.
• Document the horizontal tiers of hardware elements of hardware components.

Benefits

The typical benefits of a tier diagram are to:

• It drives the hardware component architecting subactivity.

Contents

The typical contents of a tier diagram are:

• Tier Icons
• Relationship Icons

Stakeholders

The typical stakeholders of a tier diagram are:

• Producers:
  • Architecture Team
• Evaluators:
  • Project Manager
  • Technical Leader
• Approvers:
  • Project Manager
  • Technical Leader
  • Customer Representative
• Maintainers:
  • Architecture Team
• Users:
  • Software Development Team

Phases

• Business Strategy: Not Applicable
• Business Optimization: Not Applicable
• Initiation: Completed
• Construction: Maintained
• Delivery: Maintained
• Usage: Maintained
• Retirement: Archived

Preconditions

Tier diagrams can typially be started if the following preconditions hold:

• The initiation phase has started.
• The architecture team is adequately staffed and trained in logical architecture production.

Inputs

The typical inputs to a tier diagram include:

• Work Products:
  • Application Vision Statement
  • System Requirements Specification
• Stakeholders:
  • TBD

Guidelines

• TBD

Conventions

Tier diagrams are typically constrained by the following conventions:

• Work Flow
• Content and Format Standard
• Inspection Checklist

Examples

The following is a generic example tier diagram documenting the typical tiers of an n-tier application.

Example Tier Diagram