--- title: "02 — Architecture Constraints" description: "Document imposed constraints: technical, organizational, regulatory, and environmental constraints that affect architecture decisions." status: skeleton --- # 02 — Architecture Constraints ## Technical Constraints > e.g., choice of FastAPI, PostgreSQL, SQLAlchemy, Chart.js, Jinja2 templates. The architecture of CalMiner is influenced by several technical constraints that shape its design and implementation: 1. **Framework Selection**: The choice of FastAPI as the web framework imposes constraints on how the application handles requests, routing, and middleware. FastAPI's asynchronous capabilities must be leveraged appropriately to ensure optimal performance. 2. **Database Technology**: The use of PostgreSQL as the primary database system dictates the data modeling, querying capabilities, and transaction management strategies. SQLAlchemy ORM is used for database interactions, which requires adherence to its conventions and limitations. 3. **Frontend Technologies**: The decision to use Jinja2 for server-side templating and Chart.js for data visualization influences the structure of the frontend code and the way dynamic content is rendered. 4. **Simulation Logic**: The Monte Carlo simulation logic must be designed to efficiently handle large datasets and perform computations within the constraints of the chosen programming language (Python) and its libraries. ## Organizational Constraints > e.g., team skillsets, development workflows, CI/CD pipelines. Restrictions arising from organizational factors include: 1. **Team Expertise**: The development team’s familiarity with FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, and frontend technologies like Jinja2 and Chart.js influences the architecture choices to ensure maintainability and ease of development. 2. **Development Processes**: The adoption of Agile methodologies and CI/CD pipelines (using Gitea Actions) shapes the architecture to support continuous integration, automated testing, and deployment practices. 3. **Collaboration Tools**: The use of specific collaboration and version control tools (e.g., Gitea) affects how code is managed, reviewed, and integrated, impacting the overall architecture and development workflow. 4. **Documentation Standards**: The requirement for comprehensive documentation (as seen in the `docs/` folder) necessitates an architecture that is well-structured and easy to understand for both current and future team members. 5. **Knowledge Sharing**: The need for effective knowledge sharing and onboarding processes influences the architecture to ensure that it is accessible and understandable for new team members. 6. **Resource Availability**: The availability of hardware, software, and human resources within the organization can impose constraints on the architecture, affecting decisions related to scalability, performance, and feature implementation. ## Regulatory Constraints > e.g., data privacy laws, industry standards. Regulatory constraints that impact the architecture of CalMiner include: 1. **Data Privacy Compliance**: The architecture must ensure compliance with data privacy regulations such as GDPR or CCPA, which may dictate how user data is collected, stored, and processed. 2. **Industry Standards**: Adherence to industry-specific standards and best practices may influence the design of data models, security measures, and reporting functionalities. 3. **Auditability**: The system may need to incorporate logging and auditing features to meet regulatory requirements, affecting the architecture of data storage and access controls. 4. **Data Retention Policies**: Regulatory requirements regarding data retention and deletion may impose constraints on how long certain types of data can be stored, influencing database design and data lifecycle management. 5. **Security Standards**: Compliance with security standards (e.g., ISO/IEC 27001) may necessitate the implementation of specific security measures, such as encryption, access controls, and vulnerability management, which impact the overall architecture. ## Environmental Constraints > e.g., deployment environments, cloud provider limitations. Environmental constraints affecting the architecture include: 1. **Deployment Environments**: The architecture must accommodate various deployment environments (development, testing, production) with differing configurations and resource allocations. 2. **Cloud Provider Limitations**: If deployed on a specific cloud provider, the architecture may need to align with the provider's services, limitations, and best practices, such as using managed databases or specific container orchestration tools. 3. **Containerization**: The use of Docker for containerization imposes constraints on how the application is packaged, deployed, and scaled, influencing the architecture to ensure compatibility with container orchestration platforms. 4. **Scalability Requirements**: The architecture must be designed to scale efficiently based on anticipated load and usage patterns, considering the limitations of the chosen infrastructure. ## Performance Constraints > e.g., response time requirements, scalability needs. Current performance constraints include: 1. **Response Time Requirements**: The architecture must ensure that the system can respond to user requests within a specified time frame, which may impact design decisions related to caching, database queries, and API performance. 2. **Scalability Needs**: The system should be able to handle increased load and user traffic without significant degradation in performance, necessitating a scalable architecture that can grow with demand. ## Security Constraints > e.g., authentication mechanisms, data encryption standards. ## Budgetary Constraints > e.g., licensing costs, infrastructure budgets. ## Time Constraints > e.g., project deadlines, release schedules. ## Interoperability Constraints > e.g., integration with existing systems, third-party services. ## Maintainability Constraints > e.g., code modularity, documentation standards. ## Usability Constraints > e.g., user interface design principles, accessibility requirements. ## Data Constraints > e.g., data storage formats, data retention policies. ## Deployment Constraints > e.g., deployment environments, cloud provider limitations. ## Testing Constraints > e.g., testing frameworks, test coverage requirements. ## Localization Constraints > e.g., multi-language support, regional settings. ## Versioning Constraints > e.g., API versioning strategies, backward compatibility. ## Monitoring Constraints > e.g., logging standards, performance monitoring tools. ## Backup and Recovery Constraints > e.g., data backup frequency, disaster recovery plans. ## Development Constraints > e.g., coding languages, frameworks, libraries to be used or avoided. ## Collaboration Constraints > e.g., communication tools, collaboration platforms. ## Documentation Constraints > e.g., documentation tools, style guides. ## Training Constraints > e.g., training programs, skill development initiatives. ## Support Constraints > e.g., support channels, response time expectations. ## Legal Constraints > e.g., compliance requirements, intellectual property considerations. ## Ethical Constraints > e.g., ethical considerations in data usage, user privacy. ## Environmental Impact Constraints > e.g., energy consumption considerations, sustainability goals. ## Innovation Constraints > e.g., limitations on adopting new technologies, risk tolerance for experimentation. ## Cultural Constraints > e.g., organizational culture, team dynamics affecting development practices. ## Stakeholder Constraints > e.g., stakeholder expectations, communication preferences. ## Change Management Constraints > e.g., processes for handling changes, version control practices. ## Resource Constraints > e.g., availability of hardware, software, and human resources. ## Process Constraints > e.g., development methodologies (Agile, Scrum), project management tools. ## Quality Constraints > e.g., code quality standards, testing requirements.