#ARCHITECTURE DIAGRAM PROGRAMMING SOFTWARE#

That may be true for small projects or standard, off-the-shelf offerings. Professionals espousing Agile values consider extensive documentation an effort-intensive, low-value activity and overhead that can be abandoned without risk. It’s a vehicle for bouncing off ideas on a complex and potentially cognitively overloading topic. Like any technical artifact, the HLD is an excellent communication and collaboration tool.High-level estimates can be derived from the HLD, allowing project planners to calculate the project’s cost and assess project risk.

#ARCHITECTURE DIAGRAM PROGRAMMING SOFTWARE#

The HLD is generally provided with the Functional Specs to support the Statement of Work (SOW), a binding document between the software vendor and the client.

It forms the basis of the stakeholders’ acceptance of the proposed solution, a baseline from which implementation can begin.

The infographic below shows the main advantages of having a High-Level Design. Illustrating solutions from different angles helps reduce their complexity and enhance their assimilation.

Other forms and representations - Besides the popular decomposition methods presented above, an IT solution can be represented in a few different views: behavioural, temporal flow, and states and modes.

Information capture, processing, storage, replication, validation, and reporting are all aspects of data flow that must be documented.

Data flowdiagrams describe the input and output data and its path in the system.

These must be suitably documented as they might impact operations or how users interact with the system.

The business processes, use cases, and user stories - IT projects typically add or modify business use cases, such as user interfaces or functionality, besides pure compliance or maintenance.

This section details whether new modules, skillsets, licenses, or operational requirements are needed for this project.

A logical breakdown of the solution is necessary if it is complicated, adds new modules, or updates existing ones.

Make sure you use consistent system modelling language across all your diagrams. Network diagrams describe servers, network devices, communication links, and specialized hardware.

A high-level network and architecture diagram - Architectural diagrams describe the major components of a software system, such as platforms, applications, and interfaces.

Business requirements are documented outside the HLD in a Business Requirements Document ( BRD).

Reference to r equirements - A reference to the functional requirements covering user functionality, such as business features, and non-functional requirements revolving around reliability, performance, high availability, security, and compliance.

It is best to list all the elements for clarity without going near the implementation details, as these are not for this particular audience.

A brief description of the solution - While keeping the discussion fairly simple, the HLD describes the primary features of the system.

Requirement volatility compels you to use Agile methodologies, while Waterfall is appropriate for familiar and classical implementations. Depending on the context, a top-to-bottom or a bottom-up approach can be used for building large software systems.

Agile Architecture and Design - Can a design or architecture be Agile? The answer is yes, and the two topics of solution architecture and software architecture have been discussed thoroughly.

High vs Low-Level Design - The HLD should not be confused with the Low-Level Design (or LLD), whose primary role is to decompose the systems defined in the HLD into subsystems, subcomponents and, most importantly, select optimal values for key design and operations parameters laid out in the architecture.

A design exercise uses an iterative approach to determine the best technical solution, ensuring that functional requirements and non-functional constraints are adequately understood, documented, and satisfied.

Designing an IT solution - We recommend reading the Solution Design article for context and background.

However, no substantial development effort is expected in such undertakings, in contrast to what we see in green field assignments. The components of this solution and the interfaces joining them might need to be customized for every implementation. Development vs Integration - High-level designs (HLD) work best for system integration projects where a solution is assembled from mature technology and products.

Architecture diagram programming