Chapter 6 – Architectural Design (an Introduction)
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Topics covered
Architectural design
Architectural views
Architectural patterns
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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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Agility and architecture
It is generally accepted that an early stage of agile
processes is to design an overall systems architecture.
Refactoring the system architecture is usually expensive
because it affects so many components in the system
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The architecture of a packing robot control
system
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Architectural 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
Localize 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 they 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 Can involve additional code and code complexity when the data model and
interactions are simple.
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The organization of the Model-View-Controller
Fig. 6.3 The organization of MVC
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The organization of the Model-View-Controller
how a user sees MVC
MVC with User Action
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Web application architecture using the MVC
pattern
Fig. 6.4 Web app architecture using MVC
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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.
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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 layers is often
difficult and a high-level layer may have to interact directly with
lower-level layers rather than through the layer immediately
below it. Performance can be a problem because of multiple
levels of interpretation of a service request as it is processed at
each layer.
[Link]
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g-industry-standard-patterns/6896176-layered-architecture
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 is most commonly used and 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 the same
time) as it is all in one place.
Disadvantages The repository is a single point of failure so problems in the
repository affect the whole system. May be inefficiencies in
organizing all communication through the repository.
Distributing the repository across several computers may be
difficult.
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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.
[Link]
sing-industry-standard-patterns/6896156-client-server-architecture
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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 depends on the network as well as the
system. May be management problems if servers are owned by
different organizations.
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A client–server architecture for a film library
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