Eltjo R. Poort, Doctoral Thesis, VU University, Amsterdam
As the presence of Information Technology increases, so grows the impact of the design decisions shaping the IT solutions that touch our lives. Solution architecting is the art of making such decisions – a relatively new craft emerging in the IT industry. We see the value of modern IT solutions in their rich functionality, but most of the risk and cost of delivering these solutions are driven by the other, “non-functional” aspects.
This thesis relates the story of the development of practices to address these non-functional aspects in solution architectures in Logica. It presents the research that eventually led to Risk- and Cost Driven Architecture (RCDA), a set of principles and practices that guide architects in designing and delivering solutions.