Advance Software Engineering
Architecture Design
What is Design?
• Design allows you to model the system or
product that is to be built.
• Design helps to understand Technical details
better.
• Design is a Process of Converting:
What to do?? ======= How to do?
(R.E) (Design)
What is Design?
• Design is what almost every engineer wants to
do, core of engineering process
• It is the place where creativity rules—where
stakeholder requirements, business needs,
and technical considerations all come
together in the formulation of a product or
system
What is Design?
• The design model provides detail about
software architecture, data structures,
interfaces, and components that are
necessary to implement the system
System
A system is a collection of components
organized to accomplish a specific function or
set of functions
(IEEE Std. 610.12-1990)
Software Architecture
The software architecture of a program or
computing system is the structure or
structures of the system, which comprise
software elements, and the relationships
among them
Software Architecture
Architectural design represents the structure
of data and program components that are
required to build a computer-based system.
Why is it important?
• You wouldn’t attempt to build a house without a
map, would you?
• You’d need to look at the big picture—the house
itself—before you worry about details.
• That’s what architectural design does—it
provides you with the big picture and ensures
that you’ve got it right
Why is it important?
Representations of software architecture are an enabler
for communication between all parties (stakeholders)
The architecture highlights early design decisions that
provide you solid foundations on which software will be
built
Architecture “constitutes a relatively small, intellectually
graspable model of how the system is structured and how
its components work together”
Software Architecture
Software architecture is:
• An overall view of the solution to a problem
• The high-level design of modular components and
how they interact
• A foundation that one can build on to solve a
problem (e.g., rules, policies, attributes, etc.)
A Brief Taxonomy of Architectural Styles
• Data-centered architectures:
A Brief Taxonomy of Architectural Styles
• Data flow architectures :
A Brief Taxonomy of Architectural Styles
• Call and Return architectures :
A Brief Taxonomy of Architectural Styles
• Layered architecture :
Software Architecture: Example
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Software Architecture
• Defining architecture is part of the software
development process
• Its primary goal is to define the non-functional/
functional requirements of a system.
Architecture is also important because it:
• Controls complexity
• Gives Consistency and Uniformity
• Reduces risk
• Enables re-use
Software Architecture
Architecture focuses on how the major
elements and components within an
application are used by, or interact with,
other major elements and components
within the application
Why is Architecture Important?
The risks exposed by poor architecture
include software that is unstable, is unable to
support existing or future business
requirements, or is difficult to deploy or
manage in a production environment
Why is Architecture Important?
Systems should be designed with consideration
for the user, the system, and the business goal
System
Business
Why is Architecture Important?
Consider the following high level concerns when thinking
about software architecture:
• How will the users be using the application?
• What are the quality attribute requirements for the
application, such as security, performance, and configuration?
• How can the application be designed to be flexible and
maintainable over time?
The Goals of Architecture
• Application architecture seeks to build a
bridge between business requirements and
technical requirements
• The goal of architecture is to identify the
requirements that affect the structure of the
application
• A good design is sufficiently flexible to be able
to handle the natural change that will occur
over time in hardware and software
technology, as well as in user requirements
The Goals of Architecture
An architect must consider the overall effect
of design decisions, the inherent tradeoffs
between quality attributes (such as
performance and security), and the tradeoffs
required to address user, system, and business
requirements
The Goals of Architecture
Keep in mind that the architecture should:
• Expose the structure of the system but hide
the implementation details
• Realize all of the use cases and scenarios
• Try to address the requirements of various
stakeholders
• Handle both functional and quality
requirements
The Principles of Architecture Design
• Current thinking on architecture assumes that
your design will evolve over time and that you
cannot know everything you need to know up
front in order to fully architect your system
• Your design will generally need to evolve during
the implementation stages of the application
• Create your architecture with this evolution in
mind so that it will be able to adapt to
requirements that are not fully known at the
start of the design process
The Principles of Architecture Design
Consider the following questions as you create an
architectural design:
• What are the foundational parts of the architecture
that represent the greatest risk?
• What are the parts of the architecture that are most
likely to change?
• What are your key assumptions, and how will you test
them?
• What conditions may require you to re-factor the
design?
The Principles of Architecture Design
Do not attempt to over engineer the
architecture, and do not make
assumptions that you cannot verify,
Instead, keep your options open for
future change
The Principles of Architecture Design
Key Architecture Principles:
• Build to change
• Reduce risk
• Use models and visualizations as a
communication and collaboration tool
• Identify key engineering decisions
