Arcadia (engineering)

Arcadia, short for Architecture Analysis and Design Integrated Approach, is a method for engineering the architecture of complex systems and the software inside them. It is built on architecture-centric and model-driven practice: instead of treating a requirements list as the main product of early design, it asks engineers to analyse the operational need, define what the system must do, and then work out a logical and a physical architecture that is checked against that need. The method runs through five steps, from operational need analysis and system need analysis to logical architecture, physical architecture and a final product breakdown that prepares contracts with sub-contractors. Constraints such as safety, security, performance, cost and mass are formalised as viewpoints against which each candidate architecture is tested early. Thales created the method in 2007 to break down the walls between architects, specialists, development and verification teams, and customers, and the Capella modelling tool supports it.