Heavily Used Configuration

Definition

Heavily Used Configuration describes the degree to which computer resource restrictions influenced the development of the application.

A heavily used operational configuration may require special considerations when designing the application. For example, the user wants to run the application on existing or committed equipment that will be heavily used.

Score

Score As Descriptions To Determine Degree of Influence
0 No explicit or implicit operational restrictions are included.
1 Operational restrictions do exist, but are less restrictive than a typical application. No special effort is needed to meet the restrictions.
2 Stated operational restrictions require special constraints on one piece of the application in the central processor or a dedicated processor.
3 Stated operational restrictions require special constraints on one piece of the application in the central processor or a dedicated processor.
4 Stated operational restrictions require special constraints on the entire application in the central processor or a dedicated processor.
5 In addition, there are special constraints on the application in the distributed components of the system.

Hints

  • GSCs 3, 4 and 5 are somewhat related.
  • For this GSC think in terms of "How much does the infrastructure influence the design?"

Examples

Examples of operational restrictions may include the following (not an exhaustive list):

  • This question indicates that the application must run on a computer that is under- powered and can not adequately handle the new or changed functionality and that somehow the developers can overcome this by developing the application differently.
  • More than one application accessing the same data can create operational restrictions.
  • Application competing for the same resource and technologies with the potential deadlocks must be tuned and constrained to avoid performance degradation.

Typically

  • Most applications receive a score of 2
  • Client-server, web-enabled, real-time, telecommunication or process control systems receive a score of 3 to 5, but then you would need either a dedicated processor or multiple processors processing the same transactions and searching for the most expeditious means of processing.