Summary
Creating a solid architecture that is appropriate for the application is a vital step in the development of a J2EE system. In this chapter we covered the process of performing J2EE architectural analysis and design, and examined the various work artifacts created during this process. Since J2EE applications involve the construction and communication of distributed objects, object-oriented analysis can be applied directly to the architectural process, which we covered extensively in this chapter. The types of objects to create and optimal object associations were also covered.
As we saw in this chapter, UML is an excellent communication tool for object designs. UML documents should be used at each step in the design process to document the current state of the architecture and to communicate the design clearly to other members of the development team, both technical and non-technical members of the team.
In the next chapter, we will use two case studies to demonstrate this architectural design process. Later in the text, applications will be developed which implement portions of this design.