What are Concepts and Principles?
The two most important design parts of any architecture are concepts and principles. Therefore, concepts and principles are an important part of the Dragon1 Way of Thinking.
A concept is an abstraction of a particular implementation, an idea, or an approach. For instance, a wheelchair, an electric car, an espresso coffee machine, Cloud Computing, Self Service, and Chatbot are all concepts, as they are abstract ideas, approaches, and abstractions of implementations. Technology may be part of a concept as long as it is vendor and product-independent.
In an organization, there are a lot of governance concepts, business concepts, information concepts, and technology concepts that have a constructive function, operative function, or decorative function for that organization.
Example Overview of Concepts for an Enterprise.
Concepts are helpful for architects when creating a design because they help to solve problems of creating a solution that answers to various requirements that may even be conflicting. For instance, creating a lightweight large object, a big space that feels small, or a very secure open website.
With concepts, you can design starting from the conceptual level onto a logical level, onto the physical level, and onto the implementation level.
Sometimes, the meaning of a word gets abstracted from its implementation because of time. One can often use etymology sources to find the original meaning of a word, which may be completely different from its current meaning.
Note: It is interesting to see that modern concepts are technology-driven and reflect society's trends, issues, and concerns. Think of concepts like Green Energy, Privacy Data Protection, or Smart City Services.
Examples of concepts are: process, business process, process orientation, server, file server, server-based computing, service, and self-service.
There are smaller and bigger concepts, generic and specialized concepts, and detailed and global concepts.
- Some concepts are elements of other concepts: concept --> Self Service, concept as element --> Customer, Order, etc...
- Some concepts are partial concepts of total concepts: total concept -> e-Health, subconcept -> e-Agenda
- Some concepts are specializations or generalizations of concepts: Computing, Server Computing, Client-Server Computing.
The Client and Server Concept
Many of us are familiar with the concepts of Client and Server. These concepts are prevalent, and every organization worldwide will utilize them. These concepts always require a context, definition, and explanation of what they mean, but they also help communicate designs, problems, and solutions.
Client and Server as words are abstracts. A client can refer to either a person or an organization that purchases goods or services from a company. Still, it can also refer to a computer or phone where a software application connects with a software application from a large company.
Server can also mean many things, such as a hosting computer for large applications or an application itself, but it can also refer to a person or thing that serves others.
As architects, we need to specialize in our Client and Server concepts to make clear what we mean. For example, a physical mobile computer client and a virtual file server provide the reader or viewer with more context as to what is meant. And if you provide a model or diagram icons that address the attributes of these concepts, it becomes even clearer.
You can also combine concepts into new concepts, like Client Server Computing or Server Based Computing. These concepts address different ways of working and depending on the situation, one is better suited for the task than the other.
To know which one is best suited for the task or situation, an architect looks at the principle of the concept, the working mechanism - the way the elements of the concept work together to produce a result.
| Concept Name | Principle Statement | Key Elements |
| Client Server Computing | ... | Client, Server, Processing, Software Application |
| Server Based Computing | ... | Client, Server, Processing, Software Application |
Suppose you have large servers with a lot of processor capacity and memory that is unused, but the organization keeps buying new servers every month. It may be wise to replace various client-server applications with server-based applications, allowing you to make more efficient use of the server's capacity. This also applies to software applications in the cloud and virtual servers.
Architecture as Total Concept
Dragon1 architecture is defined as a total concept: the coherent set of concepts of a structure (a system with constructive, operative, and decorative dimensions).
If the concepts correctly address and blend construction, operation, and decoration, the concept becomes a total work of art. Even with organizations and IT, this can become true. So, concepts are the bricks of architecture. Therefore, it is essential to understand the fundamental concepts that comprise a comprehensive concept or architecture.
An example definition of the concept of Self Service: Self Service is the concept where the customer can select/choose. They also pay for goods, products, and services independently, utilizing resources or personnel within the organization.
This concept saves the organization resources and thus time and money in the sales process and increases the number of sales.
A principle is an enforced or managed way an entity works, behaves, or is constructed, producing certain results.
- Without an effective enforcement mechanism, the principle will not always produce the same results.
- Without knowing about the always and ever-produced results of a concept, you as an architect would not know why you chose a certain concept and made it part of the architecture.
- If you know how a concept works (out of what collaborating entities it exists), you are more able to recreate that way of working (collaboration) in the structure (and thus the produced results).
Every concept has a first principle (the principle that describes the whole way of working on a concept) and principles per function or element.
Example title of the Self-Service Principle: Making customers select and pay by themselves increases sales and saves the organization time and money.
Example short statement of the Self-Service Principle: By having customers select and pay for goods, products, and services by themselves anytime, anyplace, enabled by always available facilities, sales will go up, and sales costs will be lower than with intervention of the organization resources.
Why do Architects work with Concepts and Principles?
Three main reasons architects work with concepts are:
- By defining and visualizing the main concepts of a total concept, you visualize the architecture of a structure.
- With this visualization, you can easily relate concepts to ambitions, strategic starting points, and goals.
- By visualizing the main concepts, you enable board members, directors, and management to direct and steer with impact on implementing changes, renewal, and innovation in the organization.
The main reason architects work with principles is:
- By formulating and visualizing the principles of concepts and phenomena that will become part of the architecture, you guide projects in designing and realizing solutions.
A Dragon1 reference model for Concepts and Principles
There are different types of concepts and (their) principles. The most common types are:
- Everyday Life Concepts and Principles
- Design Concepts and Principles
- Analysis Concepts and Principles
- Concept Concepts and Principles
- Phenomenon Concepts and Principles
- Project Concepts and Principles
- Agile Concepts and Principles
- System Concepts and Principles
- Architecture Concepts and Principles
- Scientific Concepts and Principles
- Decorative Concepts and Principles
- Operative Concepts and Principles
- Constructive Concepts and Principles
- Governance Concepts and Concepts and Principles
- Business Concepts and Principles
- Process Concepts and Principles
- Application Concepts and Principles
- Data Concepts and Principles
- Information Concepts and Principles
- Technical Concepts and Principles
- Security Concepts and Principles
- Quicksand Concepts and Principles
- First Principles
Every concept, phenomenon, and system consists of principles. Concepts and Phenomena are specializations of systems.
If a concept principle or phenomenon principle is used at design time, the principle becomes a design principle.
If a concept principle or phenomenon principle is or will be integrally present, without exception, in a structure (= bouwwerk, NL), these principles become architecture principles for that structure.
Capabilities, Building Blocks and Concepts
The terms capability and building block are increasingly used today. Capabilities and building blocks may be mistaken for concepts. There are, of course, similarities, but in essence, there are differences.
A business capability is a set of top skills and maximum capacity that an organization has, enabled by certain means or services from other organizations. A business ability is a set of average skills and capacities an organization has without the help of others. And as long as it does not have it, it is a business disability. A concept may become a business capability once it is implemented. For instance, '24-hour Self Service' is a capability of Amazon.com, where the concept of self-service is applied, but not every organization has this capability.
A building block is a smart or frequently occurring combination of concepts, elements, components, or solutions. A building block is a stack. For instance, LAMP is a building block consisting of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP solutions. It is smart to combine these elements when building web applications, as they integrate seamlessly. Of course, one can consider calling a building block a concept, but the nature of a building block is to stack solutions, and the nature of concepts is to abstract solutions.
Top 100 List of Concepts and Principles
Dragon 1 provides you with a list of 100 modern and common concepts and principles to make it easy to create your architecture.
In the list linked to every architecture principle is written down in the format "concept name" followed by a "short principle statement". The short principle statements consist mostly of four parts: action, effect, enforcement, and result. This format ensures that we do not write down general rules or guidelines, but rather principles (i.e., working mechanisms). Where possible, a link to the relevant literature is provided, along with a link to a detailed description and visualization of the principle.