Conduct Architectural Studies

Conduct engineering investigations to gain insight into tradeoffs and reduce design risks.

Introduction Activities Roles and Responsibilities Artifacts Additional Resources

- Study WorkPlan - Strategic Analysis and Data - Technical Architecture Work Plans and Direction - AIS Design and Implementation Information - A-TARS (current) - Study Results (previous) Plan Architectural Studies Conduct Studies - Study Results - Status - Study Teams - Other Key Stakeholders

Introduction

Developing an Agency-wide Technical Architecture involves making technical decisions that have significant impact on the direction of the Agency's IT. Those decisions carry significant risk. One source of risk is a lack of understanding of a technology or its application. These activities provide a means to manage these risks by performing investigations to better understand the implications of a design decision.

The primary result of performing these studies is the knowledge gained from each study. Studies are performed with sufficient discipline and focus to ensure that they articulate and explore the issues and produce and disseminate reliable results as quickly and efficiently as possible.

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Activities

Consolidated guidelines are available to perform the following key activities:

1. Plan Architectural Studies. Studies are formally defined, objectives are set, and sufficient resources and technical expertise are made available. Two actions critical to initiating the study and ensuring appropriate visibility into its execution are:
   • Establish a Study Team once the area to be investigated is determined. An individual should be delegated the responsibility for planning and executing the study. This is the Study Lead. The Chief Architect makes the assignment. The Study Lead can then scope the study and plan its execution. If special skills are required, the Study Lead should identify additional qualified individuals to participate.
   • Establish a documented and approved study plan that addresses the main objective of the study, the resources required, timeframe, and the expected outcome. Other specialists on the Study Team can participate in the planning as needed. The time-box methodology (McConnell 1996) is recommended for studies to ensure that they remain focused and return a result quickly.

   The Chief Architect reviews and approves the study plan. The Chief Architect should obtain commitment for any resources required, such as from the HS program or IT project. These commitments are in the study plan.

2. Conduct Studies. Time and accuracy are the biggest concerns in performing the study. Once the Study Team begins, individuals stay focused until either the objective is meet, time runs out, or it becomes evident that the study should be abandoned. Once the study is concluded, the results should be quickly communicated to those needing the information. An informal briefing documenting the outcome can be used. A simple study results paper can be prepared to document the study. Final and intermediate results or other study byproducts are saved as appropriate for later use.

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Roles and Responsibilities

The key roles and their responsibilities are as follows:

• Study Team. These individuals consist of a Core Team of technical experts that perform the study and Extended Team Members, who may be needed when a study requires interacting with individuals from the HS program. The Study Lead has responsibility for the study.
• Other Key Stakeholders. These individuals support the study, are subjects of the study, or use the study results.

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Artifacts

The following information is used or produced by these activities. Templates, examples, and checklists for identifying and documenting items are available through the Additional Resources section at the end of this page.

• Study Work Plan. Each study is formally planned and managed with its own work plan. Status is against this plan (effort, schedule, resources, cost).
• Strategic Analysis and Data. The analysis and data collected during the IT strategic planning activities may be used as a basis of study assumptions.
• Technical Architecture Work Plans and Direction. The study work plan is integrated into these plans to ensure that the results (with the desired confidence level) are available when needed to make technology decisions.
• AIS Design and Implementation Information. This information may be used as a basis of the study. This may also include development or production resources which may be necessary to support a study, such as timing studies on a production system to gauge reserve.
• A-TARS. The appropriate part of the existing, draft, or future release of the A-TARS may be used as a basis of the study.
• Study Results. This is the main product of these activities, updating the previous results, if they exist. The study results should provide sufficient confidence to make the technology decisions that the study is trying to resolve.
• Status. Progress and issues in pursuing the studies are forwarded to the management activities to ensure coordination between these activities and other Technical Architecture and IT project activities.

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Additional Resources

Items that can be used to perform these and other activities are consolidated in the Resources portion of the IT Planning and Management Guides. Resources specific to this activity are cataloged below.

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