Similar to how an architect designs the framework of a building, a software architecture consulting expert plans and organises a company’s software system. But unlike the architect only concerned with devising a building’s framework, software architects are also involved in developing and implementing a software application.
Due to the rapid technological development over the years, the competition among businesses is stiffer, making it necessary for companies to continually develop software to provide unparalleled services to customers. This is where software architecture consulting comes in.
A good software architecture consulting partner helps your company stay ahead of the competition. They analyse end-to-end software architecture based on your needs. They can also help to design, develop, and implement a successful enterprise architecture framework that aligns with your business goals.
What Is Software Architecture Consulting?
Software architecture consulting aims to eliminate the complex nature of application development. When designing a software framework, it’s vital to do in-depth research to understand whether the project requirements are functional (or non-functional) for the company.
Software architecture consultants must also analyse the business, software, tools, and the company’s goals to ensure the developed software framework aligns with the company’s expectations.
Additionally, a software architecture consulting company can help you estimate the total cost of ownership, scope, development costs, and time to market (TTM) for a software development project so that you know ahead of time if the venture is feasible and beneficial for your company.
What are Software Architecture Consulting Services?
1. Analysis
The reason for analysing a company’s software architecture is to understand the system properties and discover areas that need improvement. Software architectural analysis provides early and useful answers related to important architectural aspects.
By thoroughly analysing a software architecture, consultants are able to define the scope of a software architecture project. The analysis also helps to determine how the system affects the end users. Finally, it allows developers to make accurate implementation-level decisions.
Typically, software architecture consulting professionals analyse systems to determine whether developing and deploying a software architecture is plausible. That being the case, the goals for analysing software systems are to ensure the following:
- Completeness: A system is complete if all the system requirements are met and all the design decisions are properly considered.
- Consistency: This is achieved if none of the architectural elements contradict each other.
- Compatibility: This aims to achieve complete alignment with different technologies such as being compatible with different operating systems, devices, etc. – without needing to be altered further.
- Correctness: This is to ensure that implementing the solution will align with the existing architectural model, if there is any to be taken into consideration.
2. Design
Usually following the analysis phase, the design phase is critical in the implementation of a software system. All the information garnered during the software architecture analysis is put to use here.
Software architecture consultants combine their knowledge of a company’s goals, customers’ needs, system properties, architectural models and project scope to create a design tailored to the business’s specific needs.
With the help of a reliable software engineering team like Zartis, you can arrive at a functional design that gives you a competitive edge in your industry much quicker. Zartis software architecture consulting services help you set the right strategy for implementing your software solution.
3. Development plan
Software architecture consultants can help you create a technology roadmap to achieve your implementation goals. The roadmap (or implementation plan) is a step-by-step guide that your team can just execute.
A solid testing strategy is also crucial to include in the software development plan because it helps guarantee that a software implementation would perform efficiently. Aside from helping to determine a system’s performance, it can help to define the initial and final conditions for your system, helping you quickly decide whether your software architecture design has a red flag.
If your development plan is simple and actionable, your team would be able to monitor and easily control your software architecture, helping you quickly accomplish your implementation goals.
4. Integration
It is necessary to continuously improve your systems to adapt to your end-users’ ever-changing needs. This will require replacing old tools with newer software that is more beneficial for your overall processes. You might also need to upgrade your existing tools so they can have all the added features that will make your processes more productive.
Aside from replacing new tools or upgrading existing ones, you might need to redesign your integration plan, especially after making significant changes (or even an overhaul) to your system.
Software architecture consulting professionals have deep experience with system upgrades and integrations. Plus, they have experts with hands-on experience who can handle all the complexities involved in software upgrades and integrations.
5. Migration
Migrating to a new platform, tool, or technology can be a complex and challenging process. However, with proper planning and execution, it can also be an opportunity to improve your organisation’s efficiency and productivity or reduce costs.
The process involves identifying the reasons for migration, preparing a migration and backup plan, testing the new platform/tool/technology, documentation, training and many other intricate steps. If not done successfully, a migration can lead to a waste of money and time and potentially cause user experience issues during that process.
Reliable software architecture consulting experts can ensure a seamless migration for businesses by
- Defining the purpose of the migration.
- Evaluating migration costs and needs.
- Assessing the environment and applications.
- Choosing a cloud environment (single, hybrid, or multi-cloud) for cloud migrations
- Determining the deployment model (IaaS, PaaS or SaaS)
- Determining the right architecture.
Whether you are changing your tech stack, migrating your current systems from monolith to microservices, on-premise to cloud, or merely changing tools to boost efficiency, Zartis is your go-to partner for a seamless migration.
6. Modernization
The most successful businesses are always finding innovative and modern strategies to improve their productivity and serve customers better. Software architecture consultants have multiple options to help you build modern and scalable systems for your business operations.
Zartis partners with businesses to design (or redesign) a robust software architecture for successful software development projects
Working with a professional software architecture consulting company can help you eliminate the uncertainties in designing and implementing a software architecture. If done right, your software architecture can make your software development journey hassle-free.
Zartis is a reliable software architecture consulting partner with more than a decade of experience in meeting the engineering needs of hundreds of businesses. Our expert team can ensure your software architecture is fully functional and follows best practices, with services including analysis, design, integration, modernization, and more.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help you design a functional architecture for your software development projects!
