Meta, Inc. - Archuation Process Software

M.E.T.A., Inc. uses a highly successful, repeatable process called Archuation? that is steeped in RUP, MDA, and UML. As its name suggests, this process is driven by an architectural philosophy. M.E.T.A., Inc. also has a product called the Business Model Automation Engine? (BMAE?) that facilitates the process by validating analysis artifacts, animating GUI mockup screens for user review, and generating software models and infrastructure code. Archuation consists of the standard processes of Requirements, Analysis, Development, and Testing.

The requirements process is guided by a business process analysis. This helps to streamline the rest of the development process by uncovering more pertinent requirements as quickly as possible, which results in less rework as the system grows. The goal of the requirements process is to identify and document real business use cases.

The analysis process follows a Business Model Analysis Guide, which focuses the analysis on business requirements rather than technical issues. Being void of technical design issues, the Business Model greatly simplifies the analysis process. This process consumes the use cases identified during requirements to yield a high level Business Model. M.E.T.A., Inc.’s BMAE Model Check facility is used to ensure the specification quality of the model by performing syntax and type checks against the model itself.

The Business Model is then reviewed in preparation for development. The review is a two-fold process. First, the analysts present the model to the users that were originally involved in the requirements process. M.E.T.A., Inc.’s GUI Animator is used to give the users an experiential idea of how the system is going to function. Once approved by the users, the model is then reviewed with the design team to ensure it understandable and can actually be implemented by the development team.

The development team then builds the Business Model. Several design guides based on the technical environment in which the system is to be implemented govern the development of the Business Model. A System Design Guide defines the overall architectural design of the system. Design guides also exist to focus in the user interface, business logic, and database management aspects of the system. The BMAE? can used to automatically transform the Business Model into a Software Model. Pre-fabricated design patterns are applied to turn each Business Model element into many corresponding Software Model elements. In this way, the Software Model is guaranteed to be compliant with the system architecture, thereby reducing the effort to oversee and enforce the software design.

System test planning begins at the same time development. The Business Model is used to identify test cases, which are then fully documented and performed by the system test team. The development team delivers a release of the system that has been regression tested based on previous releases. A build sheet is provided to focus the system testing on what has changed.

M.E.T.A., Inc. also provides an architectural framework from which the software components can be built. It includes frameworks for implementing database access, distributed business components, and GUI screens. A State Machine Framework exists to implement complex business workflows that may involve manual steps. These frameworks minimize the amount of code that must be written to implement the system. It also includes a framework for developing regression test drivers.