Center Architecture

Definitions

Center Architecture

the architecture of a single center:

• Contact Center
• Data Center
• Reuse Center

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of a Center Architecture are to:

• Fulfill Requirements.
  Provide an overall center structure and set of mechanisms that fulfill the mission, goals, and architecturally significant requirements of the center.
• Drive Designs & Implementations.
  Influence and constrain the designs and associated implementations of the centers’s components.
• Improve Communication.
  Improve communication among the center’s stakeholders concerning the the most important, pervasive, top-level, strategic inventions, decisions, and their associated rationales.
• Build Consensus.
  Produce a formally documented consensus amoung the center’s stakeholdlers (e.g., members of the customer, development, maintenance, reuse, and user support organizations) concerning the:
  • Architectural patterns and styles to be reused on the center,
  • Top-level strategic logical and physical structures (i.e., major functions, classes, processes, components, their responsibilities, and their relationships) of the center,
  • Most important, pervasive architectural mechanisms of the application, and
  • Associated rationales.
• Estimate Costs.
  Provide input (e.g., number, size, and complexity of system components and mechanisms) for estimating the cost of the producing, upgrading, or maintaining the center.
• Enable Scheduling.
  Provide a basis (e.g., components, mechanisms) for estimating the schedule of the center’s development or life-cycle cycle’s phases, builds, and milestones.
• Influence Staffing and Organization.
  Strongly influence the organization structure of the endeavor in terms of its necessary component teams and associated roles. It also influences the endeavor training plan.

Contents

The typical contents of a center architecture are the center’s:

• Architectural style and patterns.
• Logical architecture in terms of its major classes, processes, and functions.
• Physical architecture in terms of its major blackbox components (i.e., applications, databases, hardware, software, and personnel), their responsibilities, and the relationships between them.
• Major architectural mechanisms.
• Major technology and associated vendor selections.

These contents can be in the form of:

• Architectural Diagrams.
• Architectural Models:
  • Data Model.
  • Object Model.
  • Process Model.
• Software Architecture Prototype.

Stakeholders

The typical stakeholders of a center architecture are:

• Producers:
  • Architecture Team
  • Security Team
• Evaluators:
  • Architecture Evaluation Team
  • Customer Organization, which evaluates the architecture for feasibility and appropriateness
• Approvers:
  • Technical Leader
  • Project Manager
  • Customer Representative
• Maintainers:
  • Architecture Team
  • Security Team
• Users:
  • Operations Team (Data Center)
  • Reuse Team (Reuse Center)
  • User Support Team (Contact Center)

Phases

A center architecture typically is produced during the following phases:

• Business Strategy: Completed
• Business Optimization: Maintained
• Initiation: Started
• Construction: Completed
• Delivery: Maintained
• Usage: Maintained
• Retirement: Archived

Preconditions

A center architecture typically can be started if the following preconditions hold:

• The appropriate phase has started.
• The architecture team has been staffed and trained in architecting.

Inputs

The typical inputs to a center architecture include:

• Work Products:
  • Center Mission Statement
• Stakeholders:
  • Domain Experts
  • Package Vendor Representative

Guidelines

• See the general guidelines for architectures.

Conventions

A center architecture is typically constrained by the following conventions:

• Work Flow
• Content and Format Standard
• Inspection Checklist

Examples

• Contact Center Architecture
• Data Center Architecture
• Reuse Center Architecture