SPAMMED Architecture Framework (SAF)

I am working on moving my blog to wordpress and as part of the effort I am cleaning up and rearranging some of my older posts. Since my readership has increased substantially compared with the time I started blogging I think some of them are worth republishing. I think that the series on SPAMMED, my software architecture meta-framework falls under the category.

Overview
There is very little guidance on how one can go about designing/developing an architecture for a software project. The SPAMMED architecture framework (SAF) aims  to help fill this gap. SAF  is a set of activities that an architect can follow when she sets out to design an architecture. These activities helps the architect to keep abreast of the project's needs and the drivers that affect the architecture. The Activities of SAF include

• Stakeholders -identify the stakeholders   - Anyone with vested interest in the project (end users, clients, project manager, developers etc.) These are the people you will have to explain you architecture to. These are the people that have concerns that the architecture will have to satisfy (or most likely balance). Thus, the fist step is to identify and rank them.
• Principles – list Principles, Goals and Constrains. These are the properties you wishyour architecture to have (or lack) based on your previous experience. Constrains can also come from your stakeholders (e.g. management decided that all project should be .NET, a deadline etc.)
• Attributes –  discover quality attributes, the non-functional reqeirements, that (once prioritized) serve as the guide for the overall goodness of the system (Performace, Availability, scalability etc.)
• Model – model (and document if needed)  the architecture as seen from different viewpoints (list of viewpoints is stakeholder driven). Example for viewpoints include package diagrams, deployment diagrams, DB Schema etc. etc.
• Map – Technology mapping, buy vs. make decisions etc.
• Evaluate – Since architecture is the set of decision that are hardest to change it is worthwhile to spend some time trying to evaluate if they are indeed correct before commencing on
• Deploy – Software architectures are not a fire and forget thing. As an architect you still have to make sure that the guidelines set are indeed followed and even more importantly that the architecture chosen indeed match the project’s needs and doesn’t have to be reworked.

Download the SAF introduction presentation (pdf) or watch it on slideshare You can also  read the DDJ article and read all the posts I made on the subject here :

• Getting SPAMMED for architecture
• SPAMMED State chart
• Stakeholders Everywhere
• P is for Principles (and Guidelines and Constraints...) - Iteration I
• P is for Principles (and Guidelines and Constraints...) - Iteration II
• Quality Attributes - Introduction
• Utility Trees - Hatching quality attributes
• Architecture & Functional Requirements
• Architectural Modeling - First Step
• Architectural Modeling - Choosing your Viewpoints
• Modeling - Architectural Styles
• SAF - Mapping -Don't forget the Technology
• SAF - Architecture Evaluation (Introduction)
• SAF - Architecture Evaluation - Evaluation in Code
• SAF - Evaluation part II - the "Formal Methods"
• SAF - Deployment - What to do when the architecture seems stable?