Activity: Construct Architectural Proof-of-Concept

Purpose

To synthesize at least one solution (which may simply be conceptual) that meets the critical architectural requirements.

Role: Software Architect
Frequency: Probably once only, during an inception iteration.
Steps

Decide on Construction Approach

Select Assets and Technologies for Architectural Proof-of-Concept

Construct Architectural Proof-of-Concept

Input Artifacts:

Deployment Model

Design Model

Software Architecture Document

Resulting Artifacts:

Architectural Proof-of-Concept

Tool Mentors:
More Information:

Concept: Prototypes

Workflow Details:

Analysis & Design

Perform Architectural Synthesis

Decide on Construction Approach

Select the techniques to be used for construction of the Architectural Proof-of-Concept, for example:

Conceptual modeling
'Rapid' Prototyping
Simulation
Automatic translation of specifications to code
'Executable' specifications
Construction of 'spikes' as prototypes - vertical slices through layers

The software architect needs to be able to reason about these models, in the process discovering something about both problem and solution spaces.

Select Assets and Technologies for Architectural Proof-of-Concept

The software architect should select, from the assets and technologies identified in Activity: Architectural Analysis, those to be used in the construction of the Architectural Proof-of-Concept.

Construct Architectural Proof-of-Concept

Using the techniques selected for construction, the software architect builds the Architectural Proof-of-Concept, using the selected assets and technologies, to satisfy - to the extent required by the risk profile of the project - the architecturally significant requirements as captured in stereotypical use-case realizations, the overview design and deployment models, and the software architecture document.