Value of Reference Architecture Framework: Analysis and Discussion

This report analyzes the value of a reference architecture framework, exploring its role as a guidance system for architecture development, especially in the context of emerging technologies like big data, IoT, and cloud computing. The discussion covers the benefits, such as distinguishing architectural assets and facilitating evolvable product family architecting, while also addressing limitations, including high initial investment and potential for increased dependency. Recommendations are provided to enhance the framework's efficiency, focusing on increasing reuse capabilities and thorough pre-adoption study to mitigate complexity. The report concludes by summarizing the framework's advantages and drawbacks, emphasizing its significance in modern architectural design and the importance of addressing its limitations for optimal business outcomes.

Running head: VALUE OF A REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE FRAMEWORK
VALUE OF A REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE FRAMEWORK
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VALUE OF A REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE FRAMEWORK
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Discussion........................................................................................................................................1
Benefits of Reference Architecture Framework..........................................................................1
Limitation of Reference Architecture Framework......................................................................1
Recommendation to increase benefits and reduce cost...............................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................2
References........................................................................................................................................3

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VALUE OF A REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE FRAMEWORK
Introduction
Reference architecture captures the idea of the architecture on a number of areas and act
as a guidance for the development of any architectures. This is the development of new emerging
technology that helps in carrying big data, internet of things and cloud computing. Thus, it means
that reference architecture is a template solution for the architecture that is required in a
particular domain (Haghighathoseini et al., 2018). It helps in providing the blueprint to the
components and decision making that helps in constructing functionality of interest.
Discussion
Benefits of Reference Architecture Framework
The references architecture framework offers various types of benefits to the
architectures that use it. The first benefit of this framework is that it helps in distinguishing
between different architectural assets that is existing at different level of the abstraction in an
organization. Secondly, the framework help in facilitating a step towards the family architecting
easily with the help of a process that helps the architecture to progress from mono-disciplinary
engineering to an evolvable product family architecting (Muller, 2008). Further, this framework
helps in improving the productivity of system developers in the business and facilitate reuse of
common functionalities in a system.
Limitation of Reference Architecture Framework
In addition to the benefits, the framework also exerts various limitations that ruins the
architectural ability of a business. Firstly, the need for initial investment is high in order to use
this framework. Secondly, inefficient instantiation for the systems of the organization. Further, it

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VALUE OF A REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE FRAMEWORK
increases the dependency rate on the reference architecture. Thus, when the architecture needs
any applications that the reference framework does not provide, it becomes difficult for the
architecture to develop the application (Martínez-Fernández et al., 2013). Ina addition to this, the
framework is too complex and it became difficult for the participants to make use of the
reference framework effectively for the development of design and others.
Recommendation to increase benefits and reduce cost
From the above drawbacks offered by the new architectural framework it becomes
necessary to increase the benefits and reduce the limitation so that the framework is more
efficient in offering architectural outcomes. For the purpose it is necessary to continuously work
on the benefits and drawbacks. Firstly, it is recommended that the business should focus on
increasing the reuse facility offered by the framework. This will enable the business to be
dependent on the framework and find new ways to deal with the dependency and needs of other
systems. Moreover, the business should study the framework well before adopting it so that the
complexity is not faced and it can move forward with the process easily and efficiently.
Conclusion
From the above analysis it can be concluded that the reference architectural framework is
a new initiative taken by architecture to build its design by functional decomposition, allocation,
construction decomposition and other choices. The framework is beneficial for the business from
various aspects due to technological advancements, however, it has bene hit by a number of
drawbacks as well.

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References
Haghighathoseini, A., Bobarshad, H., Saghafi, F., Rezaei, M. S., & Bagherzadeh, N. (2018).
Hospital enterprise architecture framework (Study of Iranian University Hospital
Organization). International journal of medical informatics, 114, 88-100.
Martínez-Fernández, S., Ayala, C. P., Franch, X., & Marques, H. M. (2013, July). Benefits and
drawbacks of reference architectures. In European Conference on Software
Architecture (pp. 307-310). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Muller, G. (2008). A reference architecture primer. Eindhoven Univ. of Techn., Eindhoven,
White paper.