Hardware Architecting

Definition

Hardware architecting is the subclass of architecting during which an application’s hardware architecture is produced.

Goals

The goals of hardware architecting are to:

• Produce and maintain the top-level strategic structure of the hardware components of an application that captures the most important, pervasive mechanisms and design decisions including their rationales.

Objectives

The objectives of hardware architecting are to:

• Produce a formally documented consensus amoung the project stakeholdlers (e.g., client, management, developers) concerning the overall structure and major mechanisms of the hardware of the next version [incremental iteration] of the application.
• Provide input (e.g., number, size, and complexity of hardware components) to the project cost and schedule estimation task.
• Provide a basis (e.g., components) for the scheduling of the project phases and builds.
• Maximize the quality of the hardware architecture:
  • Correctness, completeness, consistency, and understandability.
  • To meet architecturally significant:
    • Operational requirements,
    • Quality requirements (e.g., extensibility, scalability, performance, operational availability, and security),
    • Design constraints (e.g., use of existing databases), and
    • Business rules.
• Maximize the productivity of the architecture team (e.g., reuse of reusable architectural frameworks, reuse of architecture conventions, and existence of example documents).

Examples

Examples of hardware architecting include:

• Architecting a web application's hardware.
• Architecting an embedded application's hardware.

Preconditions

Hardware architecting typically may begin when the following preconditions hold:

• The initiation phase has started.
• The architecture team is initially staffed and adequately trained in hardware architecting.
• Some architecturally significant requirements have been specified.

Completion Criteria

Hardware rchitecting is typically complete when the following postconditions hold:

• The hardware architecture has been documented.
• The deliverable work products in the architecture work product set have:
  • Passed evaluation.
  • Been accepted by the customer.
  • Been delivered to the customer.

Tasks

hardware architecting typically involves the following producers performing the following architecting tasks:

• Architecture Team, which performs:
  • Architecture Reuse
  • Architecture Prototyping
  • Architecture Documentation
  • Architecture Integrity Assurance

Environments

Hardware architecting is typically performed using the following environment(s) and associated tools:

• Development Environments:
  • Whiteboards
  • Word processing tool
  • Modeling tools

Work Products

Hardware architecting typically results in the production of the following architecture work products:

• System Architecture Document

Phases

Hardware architecting tasks are typically performed during the following phases:

• Initiation: Started
• Construction: Completed
• Delivery: Maintained
• Usage: Maintained
• Retirement: Not Applicable

Guidelines

• A hardware architecture must fulfill (and is therefore validated against) the architecturally significant operational and quality requirements.
• The hardware architecture drives and constrains the tactical (i.e., detailed) design.
• This activity is documented using the typical configuration for large projects. It is intended to be configured (i.e., instantiated, extended, and tailored) to meet the needs of specific projects.
• The preconditions of this activity should be the union of the preconditions of its constituent tasks.
• The completion criteria for this activity should be the union of the postconditions of its constituent tasks.