For a BSM/SQM/Service Assurance solution, initial solution architecture document is one of the most crucial artifacts which not only details the strategic objectives of the solution but also provides a competitive analysis and an alignment to the existing capability of the organization. Furthermore, it provides an insight into the driving requirements, architectural background and key organizational context to ensure that the solution being built for the organization and is not something rammed down the throat off-the shelf.
Detailed below is the template:
1 Executive Summary
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section an overview of the content of the rest of the report, giving key facts that management would like to know about its contents. The executive summary should give the most important aspects of the report while omitting details and some supporting information. Generally speaking, the summary should be not longer than 1 page and preferably as short as possible while conveying the required information.
1B [Optional, for mature organizations] Strategic Capability Network
Analysis of how the strategy aligns with the organizations capabilities and resources. You can safely skip this section if you already have a defined BSM strategy and a competitive analysis document detailing the value propositions that drive the business. For details refer the patent here and my analysis with an example here.
2 Introduction
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section gives the name of the system and describes its high-level functions. This is expanded upon by the history and stakeholders sections.
2.1 History
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section provides the historical context for the system. It answers how the system was developed and by whom.
2.2 Stakeholders
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section provides a list of the stakeholder roles important to the system. For each, the section lists the concerns that the stakeholder has that can be addressed by the system.
3 Architecture & Problem Background
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: The sub-parts of Section 3.1 explain the constraints that provided the significant influence over the architecture.
3.1 System Overview
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section describes the general function and purpose for the system or subsystem whose architecture is described in this SAD. Include a high-level context diagram of the system and summarize major inputs and outputs.
If you don’t know how to build an accurate context diagram, look here.
3.2 Goals and Context
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section gives the name of the system and describes its high-level functions that the BSM solution is offering and more importantly how the solution would fit into the current value chain of the organization.
3.3 Significant Driving Requirements
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section describes behavioral and quality attribute requirements (original or derived) that shaped the software architecture. Included are any scenarios that express driving behavioral and quality attribute goals.
This section should only list the key driving requirements and not detailed requirements for the solution.
4 Competative Landscape
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section lists and briefly describes the major competitors of the system. Competitors are those systems that do the same thing as the system or those systems that could otherwise be used in place of the system. It also gives a high level overview of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the system explained in more detail in the following sections.
4.1 Strengths
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section describes the functions that the system does well either in comparison with its competition or in absolute terms.
4.2 Weaknesses
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section describes the functions that the system does poorly in relation to its competitors or in absolute terms. Also included could be features that competitors have but the system does not, or features that the system should have but does not given the stakeholders and high-level requirements described in the previous section.
4.3 Opportunities
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section describes what the opportunities are for the system. Opportunities are factors external to the system (e.g., in the overall environment) such as general trends or actions of competitors that enable the system to increase its market share or usefulness to stakeholders.
4.4 Threats
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section describes the threats that the system is likely to experience. Threats are factors external to the system such as general trends or actions of competitors that decrease the market share of the system or its usefulness to stakeholders; in the extreme case, threats might render the system obsolete.
5 Referenced Materials
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section provides citations for each reference document. Provide enough information so that a reader of the SAD can be reasonably expected to locate the document.
6 Directory
6.1 Glossary
CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION: This section provides a list of definitions of special terms and acronyms used in the SAD . If terms are used in the SAD that are also used in a parent solution description document and the definition is different, this section explains why.
6.2 Acronym List
If you work in telecom or finance world, you would know as i do, the TLA’s [Three letter acronyms] are annoying from organization to organization. So, don’t assume – take 10 minutes and add value to your BSM document.
Acknowledgements:
SEI Architecture documentation
Professor Jeff Thompson
Professor J Vayghan
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