WP_Data Management Best Practices

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The business requirements that have an architecture implication should lead the architect to

create a draft

Architecture Implications Document

such as the one in figure 5-5 in

page 186. Look for business requirements

[1]

that imply the need for some capability or service or that set boundaries and baselines. The first column should list the

major requirements and opportunities, the second column should list the functional implications: what functions and

tools are needed to deliver, what are the service level implications for performance, availability, or data latency, what

are the scale implications in terms of simultaneous users or data volumes. The third column should list the functional

areas, and the fourth column should list the business value or priority.

By arranging the functionalities needed to support business requirements by priority, we arrive at the architecture

phases that correspond to the iterations of the lifecycle. For each phase, identifying the clear functional requirements

and the deliverables will help determine timing expectations. Thus, from the architecture implications document, we

then

arrive at the architecture implementation phases.

For the sub-systems that are unique to your organization and not delivered by tool vendors, you need to

define and

specify each sub-system in detail

to build it, get someone to build it, or evaluate products to satisfy the

requirements.

All the previous steps now lead the team to c

reate the application architecture plan document

, that spans the form

and function, components and sub-systems, business rules and definitions, priorities, resources and implementation

timeframes.

4.3.2 Technical Architecture at Design Stage

Selecting the Hardware Platform, DBMS, ETL tool, BI Tool and metadata and modeling tool has not been usually done

by PSL on behalf of the customer. However, this is starting to change, especially for the tools at the end of the list, so

the recommendations about the selection process are very useful:

—

Understand the Product Purchasing Process

—

Develop the Product EvaluationMatrix with functional requirements, priorities and scales

—

Performamarket research

—

Select a short list

—

Evaluate the candidates

—

In-depth research

—

Hands-on evaluation

—

Product comparison prototypes

—

Evaluation shortcuts (existing standards and resources, teamexperience, political factors)

—

Recommend a product

—

Trial