Enterprise architecture management

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Throughout the delivery of software and solutions for an enterprise, architects create assets, such as models and designs. They can use Rational Asset Manager to govern how architecture design models drive software development.
Architecture and design management may include:
  • Managing the architectural views of a business
  • Managing the enterprise assets for solutions
You can use Rational® Asset Manager with various design and modeling tools to govern enterprise architectures and the solutions that are based on those architectures:
  • You can publish models and reports from IBM® Rational System Architect as assets.
  • You can use asset lifecycles to provide governance for architectural reviews.
  • You can map the IT solutions and implementations that compose an enterprise architecture to Rational System Architect models and reports for traceability.
  • When you modify Rational System Architect models and reports, new asset versions are published and governed in Rational Asset Manager.
  • When you modify IT solutions and implementations, new asset versions are published and can be reported on for impact analysis.

The following image shows how to use IBM Rational Asset Manager to manage logical and physical relationships between different tools and kinds of work products.

The image shows three boxes that represent Vision, Implementation, and Product contexts for asset planning, design, construction, and deployment phases. In Vision box are Rational System Architect model or report assets. In the Implementation box are the following asset types from Rational Asset Manager: business services, application components, capabilities, and requirements. In the Production box are the following asset types from Rational Software Architect, WebSphere WSRR, and Tivoli CCMDB: published service endpoints and deployed application components.

Architecture management includes several distinct needs over various development phases, as shown in the following table:
Table 1. Managing an enterprise architecture

Architecture management phases
Phase Context Product
Planning During planning, architects plan the construction or evolution of large-scale systems of systems. The focus is on aligning portfolio investments, business priorities, and requirements. Rational System Architect
Design In the design phase, architects design the structure and behavior of software and systems. The focus is on understanding the structure and behavior for systems and software solutions and abstractions of planned solutions.
  • IBM Rational Software Architect
  • IBM Rational Rhapsody®
Construction During construction, development teams implement the systems and software according to the enterprise and solution architecture. IBM Rational Application Developer
Deployment During deployment, teams deploy a solution to a target production environment, such as an IT system, an embedded device, or a more complex systems-of-systems application. The focus is on automating solution delivery and operations management.
  • Rational Software Architect
  • Rational Asset Manager integration with IBM Tivoli® Change and Configuration Management Database

Governance for developing enterprise architecture and managing assets

You can use Rational Asset Manager as the hub for governing architecture assets and connecting design and solution assets.

In the following image, the arrows that point away from the Rational Asset Manager server represent users who are searching, finding, and using assets. The arrows that point to the server represent users who are creating or modifying assets.

The image shows the sequence of steps for the example that follows in the text. The example describes how to use Rational Asset Manager as the hub for managing Rational System Architect and Rational Software Architect so that you can review and use models that can then be used to drive team development assets.

The image shows the following activities:
  1. An enterprise architect searches in Rational Asset Manager for assets to reuse. The architect might search for approved business models, components, or blueprints for designs and definitions to use or improve in a new system architecture model (for example, a business service that needs to be automated).
  2. The enterprise architect creates the new model and publishes it in Rational Asset Manager as an asset. System models can be used for any designing or planning, such as for business processes or organizational changes.

    Rational Asset Manager supports Rational System Architect diagrams and definition assets. In the Rational Asset Manager web client, you can publish Rational System Architect model content. You might use Rational System Architect to generate an HTML representation of a model and then publish it or refer to it as an asset.

  3. Other architects and developers can refer to the asset when they review software designs and implementations:
    • Development teams and other business and technical users can find, evaluate, and use the asset.
    • Software architects can use the system architecture model to guide software designs.
  4. A software architect creates models, designs, and definitions in a modeling tool, such as Rational Software Architect or IBM WebSphere® Business Modeler that are based on or require an enterprise architecture asset (created in Rational System Architect and submitted to Rational Asset Manager as an asset). The architect publishes content as an asset for development teams.
  5. Stakeholders participate in the asset lifecycles that help govern the review and approval of assets.
    • Development teams use Rational Asset Manager to view the architecture models so that they can guide implementation and publish and reuse implementation assets.
    • To connect architecture and implementation assets, stakeholders can create relationships between assets.

    To ensure that architectures are actionable, stakeholders can require that an implementation follows the designs and architectures that are in the system and software models.

  6. The enterprise architect searches for assets to review (or uses a Rational System Architect report) to verify their compliance before approving them. If you subscribe to an asset, you are notified when the asset is ready to review.

    For example, the architect might confirm that implementation assets are compliant with the enterprise architecture as specified in the system model asset. Or, the architect might check to see what was implemented in relation to an architecture. By using the relationships from a model, the architect can see the related implementation assets and review them for compliance with the enterprise architecture model asset.