Chapter 4 – Architectural Design
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What is Software Architecture?
The process of defining a structured solution that meets
all of the technical and operational requirements, while
optimizing common quality attributes such as
performance, security, and manageability.
It will impact on the quality, performance, maintainability,
and overall success of the application.
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Topics covered
Architectural design decisions
Architectural views
Architectural patterns
Application architectures
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Architectural design
Architectural design is concerned with understanding
how a software system should be organized and
designing the overall structure of that system.
Architectural design is the critical link between design
and requirements engineering, as it identifies the main
structural components in a system and the relationships
between them.
The output of the architectural design process is an
architectural model that describes how the system is
organized as a set of communicating components.
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Architectural abstraction
Two level abstraction:
Architecture in the small is concerned with the
architecture of individual programs. At this level, we
are concerned with the way that an individual program
is decomposed into components.
Architecture in the large is concerned with the
architecture of complex enterprise systems that
include other systems, programs, and program
components. These enterprise systems are
distributed over different computers, which may be
owned and managed by different companies.
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Advantages of explicit architecture
Stakeholder communication
Architecture may be used as a focus of discussion by system
stakeholders.
System analysis
Means that analysis of whether the system can meet its non-
functional requirements is possible.
Large-scale reuse
The architecture may be reusable across a range of systems
Product-line architectures may be developed.
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Architectural representations
Simple, informal block diagrams showing entities and
relationships are the most frequently used method for
documenting software architectures.
But these have been criticized because they lack
semantics, do not show the types of relationships
between entities nor the visible properties of entities in
the architecture.
Depends on the use of architectural models. The
requirements for model semantics depends on how the
models are used.
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Box and line diagrams
Very abstract - they do not show the nature of
component relationships nor the externally visible
properties of the sub-systems.
However, useful for communication with stakeholders
and for project planning.
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Use of architectural models
As a way of facilitating discussion about the system
design
A high-level architectural view of a system is useful for
communication with system stakeholders and project planning
because it is not cluttered with detail. Stakeholders can relate to
it and understand an abstract view of the system. They can then
discuss the system as a whole without being confused by detail.
As a way of documenting an architecture that has been
designed
The aim here is to produce a complete system model that shows
the different components in a system, their interfaces and their
connections.
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Architectural design decisions
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Architectural design decisions
Architectural design is a creative process so the process
differs depending on the type of system being
developed.
However, a number of common decisions span all design
processes and these decisions affect the non-functional
characteristics of the system.
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Architectural design decisions
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Architecture reuse
Systems in the same domain often have similar
architectures that reflect domain concepts.
Application product lines are built around a core
architecture with variants that satisfy particular customer
requirements.
The architecture of a system may be designed around
one of more architectural patterns or ‘styles’.
These capture the essence of an architecture and can be
instantiated in different ways.
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Architecture and system characteristics
Performance
Localize critical operations and minimize communications. Use
large rather than fine-grain components.
Security
Use a layered architecture with critical assets in the inner layers.
Safety
Localise safety-critical features in a small number of sub-
systems.
Availability
Include redundant components and mechanisms for fault
tolerance.
Maintainability
Use fine-grain, replaceable components.
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Architectural views
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Architectural views
What views or perspectives are useful when designing
and documenting a system’s architecture?
What notations should be used for describing
architectural models?
Each architectural model only shows one view or
perspective of the system.
It might show how a system is decomposed into modules, how
the run-time processes interact or the different ways in which
system components are distributed across a network. For both
design and documentation, you usually need to present multiple
views of the software architecture.
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Architectural views
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4 + 1 view model of software architecture
A logical view, which shows the key abstractions in the
system as objects or object classes.
A process view, which shows how, at run-time, the
system is composed of interacting processes.
A development view, which shows how the software is
decomposed for development.
A physical view, which shows the system hardware and
how software components are distributed across the
processors in the system.
Related using use cases or scenarios (+1)
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Representing architectural views
Some people argue that the Unified Modeling Language
(UML) is an appropriate notation for describing and
documenting system architectures
I disagree with this as I do not think that the UML
includes abstractions appropriate for high-level system
description.
Architectural description languages (ADLs) have been
developed but are not widely used
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Architectural patterns
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Architectural patterns
Patterns are a means of representing, sharing and
reusing knowledge.
An architectural pattern is a stylized description of good
design practice, which has been tried and tested in
different environments.
Patterns should include information about when they are
and when the are not useful.
Patterns may be represented using tabular and graphical
descriptions.
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The Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern
Name MVC (Model-View-Controller)
Description Separates presentation and interaction from the system data.
The system is structured into three logical components that
interact with each other. The Model component manages the
system data and associated operations on that data. The
View component defines and manages how the data is
presented to the user. The Controller component manages
user interaction (e.g., key presses, mouse clicks, etc.) and
passes these interactions to the View and the Model. See
Figure 6.3.
Example Figure 6.4 shows the architecture of a web-based application
system organized using the MVC pattern.
When used Used when there are multiple ways to view and interact with
data. Also used when the future requirements for interaction
and presentation of data are unknown.
Advantages Allows the data to change independently of its representation
and vice versa. Supports presentation of the same data in
different ways with changes made in one representation
shown in all of them.
Disadvantages
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data model and interactions are simple.
The organization of the Model-View-
Controller
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Web application architecture using the MVC
pattern
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Layered architecture
Used to model the interfacing of sub-systems.
Organises the system into a set of layers (or abstract
machines) each of which provide a set of services.
Supports the incremental development of sub-systems in
different layers. When a layer interface changes, only the
adjacent layer is affected.
However, often artificial to structure systems in this way.
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The Layered architecture pattern
Name Layered architecture
Description Organizes the system into layers with related
functionality associated with each layer. A layer
provides services to the layer above it so the
lowest-level layers represent core services that are
likely to be used throughout the system. See Figure
6.6.
Example A layered model of a system for sharing copyright
documents held in different libraries, as shown in
Figure 6.7.
When used Used when building new facilities on top of existing
systems; when the development is spread across
several teams with each team responsibility for a
layer of functionality; when there is a requirement
for multi-level security.
Advantages Allows replacement of entire layers so long as the
interface is maintained. Redundant facilities (e.g.,
authentication) can be provided in each layer to
increase the dependability of the system.
Disadvantages In practice, providing a clean separation between
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A generic layered architecture
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The architecture of the iLearn system
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Repository architecture
Sub-systems must exchange data. This may be done in
two ways:
Shared data is held in a central database or repository and may
be accessed by all sub-systems;
Each sub-system maintains its own database and passes data
explicitly to other sub-systems.
When large amounts of data are to be shared, the
repository model of sharing is most commonly used a
this is an efficient data sharing mechanism.
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The Repository pattern
Name Repository
Description All data in a system is managed in a central
repository that is accessible to all system
components. Components do not interact directly,
only through the repository.
Example Figure 6.9 is an example of an IDE where the
components use a repository of system design
information. Each software tool generates
information which is then available for use by
other tools.
When used You should use this pattern when you have a
system in which large volumes of information are
generated that has to be stored for a long time.
You may also use it in data-driven systems where
the inclusion of data in the repository triggers an
action or tool.
Advantages Components can be independent—they do not
need to know of the existence of other
components. Changes made by one component
can be propagated to all components. All data can
be managed consistently (e.g., backups done at
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the same time) as it is all in one place.
A repository architecture for an IDE
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Client-server architecture
Distributed system model which shows how data and
processing is distributed across a range of components.
Can be implemented on a single computer.
Set of stand-alone servers which provide specific
services such as printing, data management, etc.
Set of clients which call on these services.
Network which allows clients to access servers.
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The Client–server pattern
Name Client-server
Description In a client–server architecture, the functionality of the
system is organized into services, with each service
delivered from a separate server. Clients are users of
these services and access servers to make use of
them.
Example Figure 6.11 is an example of a film and video/DVD
library organized as a client–server system.
When used Used when data in a shared database has to be
accessed from a range of locations. Because servers
can be replicated, may also be used when the load on
a system is variable.
Advantages The principal advantage of this model is that servers
can be distributed across a network. General
functionality (e.g., a printing service) can be available
to all clients and does not need to be implemented by
all services.
Disadvantages Each service is a single point of failure so susceptible
to denial of service attacks or server failure.
Performance may be unpredictable because it
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A client–server architecture for a film library
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Application architectures
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Application architectures
Application systems are designed to meet an
organizational need.
As businesses have much in common, their application
systems also tend to have a common architecture that
reflects the application requirements.
A generic application architecture is an architecture for a
type of software system that may be configured and
adapted to create a system that meets specific
requirements.
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Use of application architectures
As a starting point for architectural design.
As a design checklist.
As a way of organising the work of the development
team.
As a means of assessing components for reuse.
As a vocabulary for talking about application types.
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Examples of application types
Data processing applications
Data driven applications that process data in batches without
explicit user intervention during the processing.
Transaction processing applications
Data-centered applications that process user requests and
update information in a system database.
Event processing systems
Applications where system actions depend on interpreting
events from the system’s environment.
Language processing systems
Applications where the users’ intentions are specified in a formal
language that is processed and interpreted by the system.
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Application type examples
Two very widely used generic application architectures are
transaction processing systems and language processing
systems.
Transaction processing systems
E-commerce systems;
Reservation systems.
Language processing systems
Compilers;
Command interpreters.
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Key points
A software architecture is a description of how a software
system is organized.
Architectural design decisions include decisions on the
type of application, the distribution of the system, the
architectural styles to be used.
Architectures may be documented from several different
perspectives or views such as a conceptual view, a
logical view, a process view, and a development view.
Architectural patterns are a means of reusing knowledge
about generic system architectures. They describe the
architecture, explain when it may be used and describe
its advantages and disadvantages.
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Key points
Models of application systems architectures help us
understand and compare applications, validate
application system designs and assess large-scale
components for reuse.
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Chapter 4 – User interface design
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Objectives
Topics covered
The user interface
Human factors in interface design
UI design principles
User interface design principles
Design principles
Design principles
Design issues in UIs
Interaction styles
Interaction styles
Multiple user interfaces
LIBSYS interaction
Web-based interfaces
LIBSYS search form
Information presentation
Information presentation
Model-view-controller
Information presentation
Information display factors
Alternative information
presentations
Analogue or digital presentation?
Presentation methods
Displaying relative values
Data visualisation
Colour displays
Colour use guidelines
Error messages
Design factors in message wording
User error
Good and bad message design
The UI design process
The design process
User analysis
User interaction scenario
Jane is a student of Religious Studies and is working on an essay
on Indian architecture and how it has been influenced by religious
practices. To help her understand this, she would like to access
some pictures of details on notable buildings but can’t find
anything in her local library.
She approaches the subject librarian to discuss her needs and he
suggests some search terms that might be used. He also suggests
some libraries in New Delhi and London that might have this
material so they log on to the library catalogues and do some
searching using these terms. They find some source material and
place a request for photocopies of the pictures with architectural
detail to be posted directly to Jane.
Requirements from the scenario
User interface prototyping
Paper prototyping
User interface evaluation
Usability attributes
Simple evaluation techniques
Key points
Key points
