Re: [soa-rm-ra] Cogitating Descriptions for Reference Architecture and System

[Danny Thornton <danny_thornton2@yahoo.com>]

I was having similar thoughts about the use of "design
template" so I'm glad you suggested alternative
wording.  So the suggestion is

A reference architecture is an abstraction of the
fundamental organization of a domain of systems,
embodied in their services and components, their
relationships to each other and the environment, and
the principles governing their design and evolution.

Domain of systems could equate to SOA ecosystem.  If
services and components are used in the sentence, then
a qualification for SOA would have to be added which I
think would cause the sentence to loose some of its
impact.  I would leave evolution off the sentence
since evolution (future tense) is a potentially
unknown series of future events.

The following is a stab at combining the two suggested
descriptions of a reference architecture:

A reference architecture is an abstraction of the
fundamental organization of mechanisms and
relationships and the principles governing their
design for the purpose of realizing a predetermined
set of goals and requirements. 

Danny

--- Wayne P O'Brien <wayne_p_obrien@raytheon.com>
wrote:

> Danny,
> 
> The RM distinguishes reference architectures and
> architectural patterns 
> when describing concrete architectures (apparently
> the base definition you 
> have below comes from the glossary of the RM, so
> there's a possible 
> inconsistency in the RM), providing another reason
> (beyond the good point 
> you made about design patterns) for defining a
> reference architecture in 
> terms of more than a design pattern.
> 
> Perhaps the definition of RA should  be defined in
> terms of even more than 
> a design template (one definition of template is a
> pattern).  ANSI IEEE 
> 1471-2000 could also be the basis for the definition
> of reference 
> architecture.  A few words (in red) could be added
> to the definition of 
> architecture in 1471 (also cited by DoDAF 1.5) to
> obtain a definition of a 
> reference architecture, as follows:
>  "An abstraction of the fundamental organization of
> a domain of systems, 
> embodied in their [changed from "its"] components,
> their relationships to 
> each other and the environment, and the principles
> governing their design 
> and evolution."  This definition would capture the
> idea in the RM of more 
> the one concrete architecture (one for each of the
> implemented systems in 
> the domain covered by the reference architecture)
> for a reference 
> architecture.  The word  "components" in this
> definition could be changed 
> to "services and components" to be consistent with
> your proposed changes 
> to the definition of a system.
> Wayne O’Brien
> Raytheon Company
> 
> 7700 Arlington Boulevard, Mail Stop M124
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> wayne_p_o'brien@raytheon.com
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> 
> Danny Thornton <danny_thornton2@yahoo.com> 
> 07/24/2007 11:43 AM
> 
> To
> Francis McCabe <frankmccabe@mac.com>,
> soa-rm-ra@lists.oasis-open.org
> cc
> 
> Subject
> [soa-rm-ra] Cogitating Descriptions for Reference
> Architecture and System
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chapter 1 of the latest RA doc is really shaping up.
> There are two issues for this section that we may be
> able to work through via email.
> 
> 1) The first issue is our description of a reference
> architecture.  Currently we state:
> 
> "A reference architecture is an architectural design
> pattern that indicates how an abstract set of
> mechanisms and relationships realizes a
> predetermined
> set of requirements."
> 
> If we state the reference architecture is an
> architectural design pattern, I would expect the
> document to contain design patterns in a common
> design
> pattern format.  Also, I would associate "realizes"
> as
> it is used in the sentence with SOA implementation. 
> The following is an alternative description for a
> reference architecture:
> 
> A reference archicture is a design template that
> indicates how an abstract set of mechanisms and
> relationships may realize a predetermined set of
> goals
> and requirements.
> 
> 2) The second issue is that we use the ANSI IEEE
> 1471-2000 definition for system:
> 
> "A collection of components organized to accomplish
> a
> specific function or set of functions."
> 
> I suggest dropping this direct quote from IEEE 1471
> and stating something more appropriate for an SOA
> ecosystem.  For example,
> 
> For SOA, a system can be defined as a collection of
> services and components organized to accomplish
> specific goals and requirements.
> 
> Other than these two issues, chapter one is a good
> read and resonates with me.
> 
> Danny
> 
> 
>  
>
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