Newly released book explains how experts develop software architectures for systems that require intensive use of technology.
Such as those found in automobiles, airplanes and in the areas of health, defense and telecommunications.
What do intensive care units, planes, cars, defense and telecommunications systems have in common? Note that the intensive use of technology is a constant in all of these contexts and that a failure in any of them can generate fatal consequences. These characteristics significantly impact the work of software developers who work in these environments, demanding the adoption of already consolidated models and practices.
How this architecture was born.
This is how reference architecture was born, a rapidly expanding field of computer science, and the central theme of the work Reference Architectures for Critical Domains: Industrial Uses and Impacts . The book was born from a scientific partnership established more than a decade ago between the two editors of the work: professor Elisa Yumi Nakagawa, from the Institute of Mathematical and Computing Sciences (ICMC) at USP, and the head of the Department of Virtual Engineering from the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE) , Germany, Pablo Oliveira Antonino.
“This is the first book that explicitly addresses reference architectures, particularly those for software-intensive systems,” the editors write in the introduction. “Drawing a parallel: when you build a residence, you need to draw up a plan to organize where each room will be, how they will communicate, what the lighting will be like., where the doors, windows and everything else will be. When we build a software system, we also adopt this approach. You can’t just sit at the computer and do it. You have to design the architecture to identify what the large modules will be and how they will communicate”, explains professor Elisa Nakagawa.
Several models to build this architecture.
It reveals that there are already several models for building these architectures, which are widely used and validated in the market, serving as a reference and starting point for those working in the area of software engineering. “A reference architecture is a set of documents that records knowledge about how to develop software systems in a given application domain,” she adds.
The professor cites the automotive sector as an example. There are several companies that supply the parts and equipment that make up a car, but it is necessary to have a single standard so that all systems that operate within that environment function properly. In this context, a widely used reference architecture is the Automotive Open System Architecture (Autosar), the focus of chapter 5 of the book.
In total, Reference Architectures for Critical Domains: Industrial Uses and Impacts has ten chapters, which can be read in any order. In addition to the two introductory theoretical texts, there are five others that address reference architectures in different areas of knowledge, such as telecommunications (chapter 3), health (chapter 4), aviation (chapter 6) and industry 4.0 (chapter 7). There is also a chapter focusing on non-specific domains; another in which the future perspectives and challenges of the area are discussed; and, finally, there is the concluding chapter.
During this period, the researchers received funding from funding agencies such as the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) . With the book, Elisa and Paulo intend to share what they learned along the journey and contribute to the consolidation of the area of reference architecture.
