Roundtrip Architectural Modeling

This paper puts forward a proposition that the production of enterprise information systems must embrace a roundtrip architectural modeling lifecycle. Such a lifecycle begins with the definition of a meta-architecture aimed at minimizing and managing software complexity. It then embraces various supportability metrics to ensure that the implementation conforms to the architectural design and that the resulting system is supportable, i.e. understandable, maintainable, and scalable. The paper describes the meta-architecture called PCMEF (Presentation, Control, Mediator, Entity, Foundation), explains the dependency management principles in PCMEF, presents selected supportability metrics, describes a tool for the roundtrip development with metrics, defines the overall process for roundtrip architectural modeling, and compares the PCMEF approach with the OMG’s MDA (Model Driven Architecture) framework.