System Views (SV) [Physical, Specification or Solution Views]

SV-9 Technology & Skills Forecast v1.2

The Technology & Skills Forecast defines the underlying current and expected supporting technologies and skills. Expected supporting technologies and skills are those that can be reasonably forecast given the current state of technology and skills, and expected improvements / trends. New technologies and skills will be tied to specific time periods, which can correlate against the time periods used in SV-8 milestones and linked to Enterprise Phases.

Background:

SV-9 provides a summary of emerging technologies and skills that impact the Resources that constitute the Architecture. The SV-9 provides descriptions of relevant:

In addition to providing an inventory of trends, capabilities and products, the SV-9 also includes an assessment of the potential impact of these items on the architecture. Given the future-oriented nature of this product, forecasts are typically made in short, mid and long-term timeframes, such as six, 12 and 18-month intervals.

Usage:

Data objects:

The data in an SV-9 can include:



Relationships Between Key Data Objects (Simplified from M3)

Representation:

Detailed Product Description:

An SV-9 summarises predictions about trends in technology and personnel. An SV-9 is usually presented as a table, with forecasts categorised by periods of time (e.g., 6-month, 12-month, 18- month intervals). Architects will generally produce separate SV-9 products for technology and human resources.

The specific time periods selected (and the trends being tracked) will be coordinated with Architecture transition plans (see SV-8). That is, insertion of new capabilities and upgrading / re-training of existing resources may depend on or be driven by the availability of new technology and associated skills. The forecast includes potential impacts on current Architectures and thus influences the development of transition and target Architectures. The forecast will be focused on technology and human resource areas that are related to the purpose for which a given Architecture is being described and will identify issues affecting that Architecture.

If standards are an integral part of the technologies important to the evolution of a given Architecture, then it may be convenient to combine SV-9 with the Technical Standards Forecast (TV-2).

SV-9 is constructed as part of a given Architecture and in accordance with the Architecture purpose. Typically, this will involve starting with one or more overarching reference models or standards profiles to which the Architecture is subject to using. Using these reference models or standards profiles, the architect will select the service areas and services relevant to the Architecture. SV-9 forecasts relate to the Technical Standards Profile (TV-1) in that a timed forecast may contribute to the decision to retire or phase out the use of a certain standard in connection with a resource. Similarly, SV-9 forecasts relate to TV-2 standards forecasts in that a certain standard may be adopted depending on a certain technology or skill becoming available (e.g., the availability of Java Script may influence the decision to adopt a new HTML standard).

Alternatively, SV-9 may relate forecasts to SV elements (e.g., systems) where applicable. The list of resources potentially impacted by the forecasts can also be summarised as additional information in SV-9.

The Figure below is a systems technology forecast SV-9.


Example Systems Technology Forecast (SV-9)

Page version 1.2, dated 1st July 2008

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