Enterprise Architecture and Analysis of Normalized Systems
NSX wants to realize additional productivity gains by improving the module structure and evolvability of processes and products (artifacts) during the analysis phase of NS Software applications by combining methodological aspects and tooling. This will be done within the Enterprise Architecture and Analysis of Normalized Systems project.
People tend to forget that even during the analysis phase the problem of re-usability and evolvability is extremely relevant; as well as during the development as the maintenance, and on the level of analysis of one single application as on the complete application landscape. Typically it concerns data entity models, workflows (or processes), business rules, services, and components. Currently, there is only a limited set of guidelines and tooling available for modular analysis of these artifacts. More guidelines and better tooling will add value to the applicability of the NS theory during the analysis, especially for NS development projects.
The proposed solution has an impact on the different aspects of a methodology, more specific processes, products, techniques, and tools and will consist of the following:
- Metamodel for the Analysis Artefacts: a detailed and complete specification of the metamodel for different analysis artifacts, like data entities, relations between entities, tasks, and processes, and calculation rules.
- A process model for the Analysis Methodology: a complete description of the different steps that need to be executed during the analysis process, combined with a detailed description of a number of techniques that can be used during these steps.
- Tooling for Analysis and Enterprise Architecture: the development of additional software tools for graphical analysis of information systems and enterprise architectures. This includes on the one hand the integration with an external tool(s) for the import/export of models and the enforcement design rules and on the other hand an own tool or reference implementation for this graphical analysis.
