6.4 Summary

Like all of the case studies in this book, ISSS illustrates how architectural solutions can be the key to achieving the needs of an application. Table 6.1 summarized the key approaches used. Because of its projected long life, high cost, large size, important function, and high visibility, ISSS was subject to extraordinary change pressures over and above its demanding operational requirements. Human-computer interfaces, new hardware, new commercial components, operating system and network upgrades, and capacity increases were not just likely but foregone conclusions. The architecture, by using a wide range of fault tolerance mechanisms (and code templates), including hardware and software redundancy and layered fault detection, and by using distributed multiprocess computing with client-server message passing, was able to satisfy its complex, wide-ranging operational requirements.

A footnote to our story is the intensive software audit that was carried out on the ISSS architecture by a blue-ribbon panel of experts when the U.S. government was considering abandoning ISSS in favor of a simpler, less expensive solution. The audit assessed the architecture's ability to deliver the required performance and availability and included modifiability exercises that walked through several change scenarios, including the following:

Making major modifications to the M&C position's human-computer interface
Importing third-party-developed air traffic applications into the ISSS system
Adding new ATC views to the system
Replacing the RS/6000 processors with a chip of similar capability
Deleting electronic flight strips from the requirements
Increasing the system's maximum capacity of flight tracks by 50 percent

In every case, the audit found that the ISSS software architecture had been designed so that the modifications would be straightforward and, in some cases, almost trivial. This is a tribute to its careful design and its explicit consideration of quality attributes and the architectural tactics to achieve them.