General Architecture Design

What

A system design

How

The Dish

A system design with specification of the technical platform, a software architecture and hardware block diagram.

Ingredients

• Specification from General Analysis

Process

Using the previous specifications it is time to partition. The process of partitioning is a process of determining the best, most economical division between hardware and software within the given constraints.

Therefore the activities in this phase is highly parallel and iterative. The developer has to repeat the same process over and over until a satisfying design has been established.

Why

Having analysed the Problem Domain, built a general architecture, fixed the requirements in a formal way and specified the interfaces, a static block architecture has been established without considering how it shall be developed.

Likewise the behaviour of of the system has been established through analysis of the Usage Domain and the interfaces ended in a specification in Activity Diagrams showing the dynamics of the system.

Now it is time to consider how these specifications can be designed into a robust construction obeying the found constraints. This is the time where the developer starts to think How can this be designed and implemented.

The design specifications are the base for the Quotation process, where the developer sets up a development plan and calculates the expected costs.

The design specifications are also the base for the development - the Realisation - of the product when the customer has accepted the quote.