Modern Software Architecture

Abstract

The aim of the thesis was to research the necessity of software architecture in modern software development. Another aim was to find out how much architecture and documentation should be done in agile development, and what should be the points of focus. The idea was to use this gathered knowledge to deliver a solid software architecture and design for the partner corporation’s internal use application.

The application connected to the thesis is an experimental product utilizing modern sensor and data analysis technologies measuring fill rates based on various metrics. The current experiments include measuring the usage of restaurant, its line queues and the usage of parking lots around the corporation’s campus. The application is meant to be a living product with a long lifespan including collaboration with various third-party organizations such as universities.

This thesis builds on the key principles and concepts of traditional software architecture focusing on more modern agile view and considerations on how they could still be beneficial for modern software development.

Incremental architecture and design were the themes of this study as the partner company wanted something that would stand the test of time and could be built piece by piece. Ease of expandability and modularity are key concepts for the thesis. The practical part focuses on the decision making which helped to reach the conclusions leading to the project team’s final version of the architecture and the connected cloud solution design. As the architecture is meant to be incremental, it will continue to change and evolve in future.

As a result of this study, a cloud solution on MS Azure was built. Also, this study compares different cloud service options for certain areas and cost analysis. Additionally, throughout the thesis there are mentions of different technologies for implementing various mechanisms used for enabling certain architectures and other key implementation details.