OIAm Project guidance
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Architecture Services plays an important role by providing projects with architectural guidance and instructions. It must also ensure that these instructions are properly implemented within the project. In the figure below, the relation between Architecture Services and a project is illustrated:
A brief description of the various project guidance products created by Architectural Services is presented below.
Architectural Study & Impact Analysis
During initiation of a project, Architectural Services will provide input for the Business Case with an Architectural Study and an Impact Analysis. For every feasible solution, an Architectural Study will be drawn up. An Impact Analysis will accompany the Architectural Study detailing the probable impact of the solution. Specifically for infrastructure architecture, an Impact Analysis will contain a gap analysis identifying which existing infrastructure facilities will be shared (and therefore will remain unchanged), which infrastructure facilities need to be expanded to implement the project and which new (and newly defined) infrastructure facilities need to be developed. The Reference Architecture and Product Catalogue will provide the necessary background information for the gap analysis.
Project Start Architecture
A Project Start Architecture (PSA) contains all relevant principles, models and standards that are applicable to the type of project and represents the architectural instructions specific to the project. Input for the PSA comes from the Architectural Study and the Impact Analysis based on the project team’s preferred solution. A PSA also specifies facilities needed by the project that are not part of the Reference Architecture or the Product Catalogue. The decision as to whether a change can be carried out within the project and under architectural supervision, or that new features can be developed without architectural supervision, depends on the scope of the project, its business value and the size and impact of the requested change. A specific project may be defined to provide new standards and solutions for new features. After validation of the PSA (by the responsible architectural authority), a so-called building permit will be issued allowing the project to continue. Design Guidance, Guidance of Building, Testing and Deployment Once the PSA has been constructed, a project progresses through the various stages of design, build, test and deployment. During these phases, Architectural Services must actively support the project and monitor that the architectural instructions as set out in the PSA are being carried out properly. The best results come from a collaborative and open-minded attitude. Architects need to support project designers and engineers and be available to answer questions arising from practical application of architectural standards and instructions. If the standards apparently don’t function as expected, architects should investigate and evaluate the standards to determine if changes are needed to the Product Catalogue and Reference Architecture, or that an exception needs to be made for the project. Once the change has been deployed, the appropriate building permit should be validated. If the architects have been continuously involved in the project, this step will obviously be a formality. If architects fail to provide projects with proactive support, the architectural process will probably be considered a burden instead of an efficient and beneficiary tool, which will make consolidation of the process with the organization even more difficult.
Problem solving support
Once a facility is in use and can be regarded as a production facility, problems may occur which can be traced back to mismatches between standards. Proactive architectural support is decisive in such a situation. If facilities or solutions do not function as expected, architects should investigate the underlying problems and define changes to remedy these problems. Modifications to standards or solutions should also be made in the Reference Architecture and the Product Catalogue.
Architectural responsibility will change during the various stages of a project. This is illustrated in the figure below:
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