Center-out business architecture
As technology advances and our reliance on software increases, it becomes crucial to have successful software systems. Software architecture plays a vital role in developing successful software systems. By considering scalability, reliability, maintainability, performance, security, and flexibility, architects can create a robust foundation for applications that meet current and future needs.
Design patterns and architectural styles, such as layered, microservices, event-driven, and service-oriented architecture, serve as building blocks for creating effective software architectures.
Generic software architecture
Software system architecture is broadly grouped into three layers: the presentation layer, the application-business logic layer, and the data access layer.
The presentation layer, also known as the user interface (UI) layer, handles the interaction between the software system and its users. It provides a visually appealing, intuitive, and responsive interface for users to interact with the application.
The business layer, also known as the application layer, or logic layer, encapsulates the core business logic and rules of the software system. It serves as an intermediary between the presentation layer and the back-end systems layer, facilitating the processing and manipulation of data.
The data access layer, also referred to as the back-end systems layer, or infrastructure layer, deals with the storage, retrieval, and processing of data. It includes databases, external services, APIs, and other resources required to support the functionality of the application.
The following diagram shows the three layers of software architecture: Presentation, Application and Business Logic, and Data Access:
Architecture design approach
Any software system has two common approaches to its design and architecture: top-down and bottom-up.
As shown in the following diagram, the top-down approach designs applications specific to channels of interaction. One significant disadvantage of this approach is implementing the same presentation layer logic multiple times to deliver a consistent experience across channels.
The bottom-up approach designs product-centric implementations. The risk with bottom-up is that each system has its own view of the data used by its applications. Legacy systems built in silos attract duplicates of data held in other systems. The same data can then reside in multiple systems. Additionally, different parts of data about a single business entity (for example, a customer) can be in other systems, with no solution providing a single view of the complete entity.
Center-out business architecture
In Pega applications, Center-out™ business architecture is a fine-tuned software architecture that delivers customer and business outcomes. It gives meaningful results quickly and sustains the architecture into the future by avoiding the mistakes of the top-down and bottom-up approaches.
The Center-out approach is about:
- Focusing on Microjourney® objectives.
- Identifying when engagement with a channel is needed to complete a step.
- Identifying what data is needed to complete a step or is updated by completing a step.
It takes Pega-model-based configuration tasks to "activate a channel" and "connect to a data source" to complete the implementation rather than:
- "Developing a web solution," which too quickly fails to consider how to deliver the same solution as a mobile app or chatbot or act as a component of another application by using APIs.
- "Implementing a new SAP module," which is limited to the business units that use SAP and might have a limited view of data available from the enterprise.
Designing Pega applications begins with the Center-out approach, as shown in the following figure:
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