As a part of software engineering and as a plan for both system and project SteelCell, the design of’ system architectures’ is essential. It specifies how hardware and software interact and defines what work must be done by the design team. An effective system architecture can create systems that scale, are safe, and are robust. Designing system architecture therefore requires strategic thinking and planning.

There are 5 important points you should consider when creating a system architectural design.

1. What are the requirements for your business?

To design a system, the first thing to do is understand business requirements. If you do not have an understanding of how the system should work, it is difficult to design or implement. It is important to have a clear set of requirements that will help you choose the right architectural patterns, styles and technologies. The system architect must therefore work closely with the stakeholders in order to better understand their constraints and needs.

2. Scalability

Scalability describes the system’s ability to deal with increasing workloads. In designing system architectures, both horizontal and vertical scaling are important. Vertical scaling means increasing a system’s capacity (such as by adding new memory or CPUs), whereas horizontal scaling involves adding multiple systems that can share workloads. This is why it’s so important to know which will work best for you in the long run.

3. Security

Another important aspect of the design is security. Not only must sensitive data be protected from unauthorised entry, but the system also needs to remain stable and not behave in an unpredictable way. In order to meet the needs of your systems, you might need multiple security levels, such as access controls and encryption.

4. Maintainability

Maintenance is an important aspect to consider when planning a new system. System updates, bug fixing, and enhancements are inevitable as they evolve. It is therefore important to design for maintainability right from the beginning. This will reduce the amount of time, effort and costs associated with updating. Some techniques to improve maintainability are modularity (dividing the system into smaller, more manageable modules), well documented design patterns, as well as adhering to code standards.

5. Testability

The final sign of a good-designed system, is that it can be readily tested. To do this, you must ensure that each component of the system can be independently tested (unit-testing), and that the whole system behaves the way it should (integration-testing). A number of factors can influence the testability of a system, including the amount of coupling that exists between the components and their ability to monitor and control its state.

System architecture design is a difficult task that requires an understanding of requirements and the ability balance different goals. This will allow you to design a secure system, which can also be easily maintained.