Viewpoint Based Flexible Information System Architectures

Information system architecture (ISA) specification as a part of software engineering field has been an information systems research topic since the 60's of the 20th century. There have been manifold specification methodologies over the recent decades, developed newly or adapted in order to target the domains of software modelling, legacy systems, steel production, and automotive safety. Still, there exist considerable issues constituting the need for a flexible ISA development, e.g. incomplete methodology for requirements in model-driven architectures, lacking qualitative methods for thorough definition and usage of viewpoints. Currently existing methods for information system architecture specification usually de- vise the target architectures either addressing only a part of software life-cycles or neglect- ing less structured information. The method for flexible information system architectures (FISA) specification uses the viewpoint concept for mediating the domain expert and technical system levels. The FISA-method defines construction and application reference models based on the ANSI/IEEE Standard 1471-2000, viewpoints with model transfor- mations based on OMG-Standard Model-Driven Architecture (MDA), and four different approaches for ISA specification, thus providing for flexibility both in construction and refactoring procedures. The development of FISA-method has been based on a thorough analysis of the ISA specification method field and constructs a comprehensive procedure and reference engi- neering models for flexible ISA specification. The genericity of the conceived construction and application procedure models of FISA allows for its usage not only in research, but also in industry settings, as presented on illustrative scenarios in steel manufacturing and automotive safety.