It's high time that people started thinking and operating like a digital company. In doing some, every organization must realize that a role of asoftware architect will always thrive, be highly respected, and highly paid in this digital age. Trust us software architecture role is the most satisfying role as the positive work that you do as a software architect directly improves the product company's topline. If you aspire to be a software architect, then it is critical to fundamentally understand why software architecture is important.
Why should we care about software architecture anyway? Sometimes a developer just wants to jump right in and start coding. Software architecture is the foundation of a software system. Like other types of engineering, the foundation has a profound effect on the quality of what is built on top of it. As such, it holds a great deal of importance in terms of the successful development, and eventual maintenance, of the system.
Software architecture is a series of decisions. Some of the earliest decisions come from designing the architecture, and these carry a high degree of importance because they affect the decisions that come after it. The greater the size and complexity of a software system, the more you will need a well-thought-out architecture in order to succeed. Software architecture provides a number of benefits when done properly, which greatly increase the chances that the software system will succeed.
A proper foundation laid down by a software system's architecture yields a number of benefits. Let's take a deeper look at those benefits:
Software strives to meet all functional, non-functional, technical, and operational requirements. Working closely with stakeholders, such as domain experts, business analysts, product owners, and end users, allows requirements to be identified and understood. A software architecture defines a solution that will meet those requirements. Software architecture is the foundation for software, so software systems that lack a solid architecture make it more difficult to meet all the requirements. Poor architectures will lead to implementations that fail to meet the measurable goals of quality attributes, and they are typically difficult to maintain, deploy, and manage.
Software architecture either enables quality attributes or inhibits them. Quality attributes are measurable and testable properties of a system. Some examples of quality attributes include maintainability, interoperability, security, and performance. They are non-functional requirements of a software system as opposed to its features, which are functional requirements. Quality attributes and how they satisfy the stakeholders of the system are critical, and software architecture plays a large role in ensuring that quality attributes are satisfied. The design of a software architecture can be made to focus on certain quality attributes at the cost of others. Quality attributes may be in conflict with each other. A software architecture, when designed properly, sets out to achieve agreed-upon and validated requirements related to quality attributes.
When you look at a software architecture and its documentation, you can predict the software system's quality. Making architecture decisions based on quality attributes makes it easier to fulfill those requirements. You want to start thinking about quality attributes as early as possible in the software development process as it is much more difficult (and costly) to make changes to fulfill them later. By thinking about them up front, and using modeling and analysis techniques, we can ensure that the software architecture can meet its non-functional requirements. If you are not able to predict if a software system will fulfill quality attributes until it is implemented and tested, then costly and time-consuming rework may be necessary. A software architecture allows you to predict a software system's qualities and avoid costly rework.
Software architecture and its documentation allow you to communicate the software architecture and explain it to others. It can form the basis for discussions related to aspects of the project, such as costs and duration. A software architecture is abstract enough that many stakeholders, with little or no guidance, should be able to reason about the software system. Although different stakeholders will have different concerns and priorities in terms of what they want to know about the architecture, providing a common language and architecture design artifacts allows them to understand the software system. It is particularly useful for large, complex systems that would otherwise be too difficult to fully understand. As requirements and other early decisions are made for the software system, a formal software architecture plays an important role and facilitates negotiations and discussions.
Changes to a software system are inevitable. The catalyst for change can come from the market, new requirements, changes to business processes, technology advances, and bug fixes, among other things. Some view software architecture as inhibiting agility and would prefer to just let it emerge without up-front design. However, a good software architecture helps with both implementing and managing changes.
An established architecture might be used again within an organization for other products in a product line, particularly if the products have similar requirements. When code is reused, resources, such as time and money, are saved. More importantly, the quality of software that takes advantage of reuse is increased because the code has already been tested and proven. The increase in quality alone translates to savings in resources. When a software architecture is reused, it is not just code that is reused. All of the early decisions that shaped the original architecture are leveraged as well. The thought and effort that went into the requirements necessary for the architecture, particularly non-functional requirements, may be applicable to other products. The effort that went into making those decisions does not necessarily have to be repeated. The experience gained from the original architectural design can be leveraged for other software systems. When a software architecture is reused, it is the architecture itself, and not just the software product, that becomes an asset to the organization.
A software architecture introduces constraints on implementation and restricts design choices. This reduces the complexity of a software system and prevents developers from making incorrect decisions. If the implementation of an element conforms to the designed architecture, then it is abiding by the design decisions made by the architecture. Software architecture, when done properly, enables developers to accomplish their objectives and prevents them from implementing things incorrectly.
The system's architecture and its documentation serve as training for the developers on the team. By learning the various structures and elements of the system, and how they are supposed to interact, they learn the proper way in which the functionality is to be implemented. A software development team may experience change, such as having new team members join or existing ones leave. The introduction and orientation of new members to a team often takes time. A well-thought-out architecture can make it easier for developers to transition to a team. The maintenance phase of a software system can be one of the longest and costliest phases of a software project. Like new team members introduced during development, it is common for different developers to work on the system over time, including those introduced to maintain it.
Having a solid architecture available to teach and bring aboard new developers can provide an important advantage. Are you in look out for resolving architecture complexities with your organization? Reach out to Vanguard Infotech Solutions Inc. for a personalized consultation to revolutionize your operations! Let's innovate together!
