Software blueprint: Architecture extends to databases, services

By Control Engineering Staff January 16, 2007

Lattix LDM 3.0 from Lattix Inc. is an architecture management system that supports Web-based reporting of architectural metrics, violations, and incremental changes.

Boston, MA —Lattix LDM 3.0 from Lattix Inc . is designed to enable managers, architects, and developers to visualize, specify, and maintain the architecture software throughout an enterprise. The new version applies the developer’s dependency structure matrix (DSM) approach to systems that span different domains, from the database to services and applications. DSM is described as using dependencies to create an accurate and scaleable blueprint of complex, mission-critical software applications.

LDM 3.0 provides the means to specify and test the architecture, detect violations during development, and prevent further architectural erosion. The release “addresses the need for visualizing the architecture of complete systems,” said Neeraj Sangal, Lattix president and founder. “We have developed a general approach that is flexible and extensible so that our customers will be able to assess how changing one part affects the rest of the system. For example, it is now possible to answer questions such as, ‘Which of my applications will be affected by changing a particular stored procedure in my database?'”

Highlights of the new release include:

A new approach to data architecture . Enhanced dependency model approach extends DSM with architecture rules to enable a new way to visualize and manage the architecture of database systems. Dependency models can scale and have the flexibility to capture the relationships that can exist between a variety of database elements.

An integrated approach to system architecture . Most large software systems span multiple domains (applications, Web services, databases) and system interdependencies are specified in configuration files. Dependency models take these factors into account to create a high-level view of the system.

A general approach for users . With this new Lattix data import (LDI) module, users can specify their own systems and configurations to create an end-to-end view of an enterprise system that includes business purposes.

— Control Engineering Daily News DeskEdited by Jeanine Katzel , senior editor