Architectural Design

Georges Edouard KOUAMOU

Taken from the book “Software Engineering, 9th edition” by Ian
Sommerville.
Objectives
• To introduce architectural design and to discuss its importance
• To explain the architectural design decisions that have to be made
• To introduce three complementary architectural styles covering
organisation, decomposition and control

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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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Software architecture
• The design process for identifying the sub-systems making up a
system and the framework for sub-system control and
communication is architectural design.
• The output of this design process is a description of the software
architecture.

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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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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 criticised 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
• Localise critical operations and minimise 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 (Ian
Sommerville).
• 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)

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
Description
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.
Next slide shows the architecture of a web-based application system organized using the
Example
MVC pattern.
Used when there are multiple ways to view and interact with data. Also used when the
When used
future requirements for interaction and presentation of data are unknown.
Allows the data to change independently of its representation and vice versa. Supports
Advantages presentation of the same data in different ways with changes made in one representation
shown in all of them.
Can involve additional code and code complexity when the data model and interactions are
Disadvantages
simple.
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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
Organizes the system into layers with related functionality associated with each layer. A layer
Description provides services to the layer above it so the lowest-level layers represent core services that
are likely to be used throughout the system.
A layered model of a system for sharing copyright documents held in different libraries, as
Example
shown in next slide.
Used when building new facilities on top of existing systems; when the development is spread
When used across several teams with each team responsibility for a layer of functionality; when there is a
requirement for multi-level security.

Allows replacement of entire layers so long as the interface is maintained. Redundant facilities
Advantages (e.g., authentication) can be provided in each layer to increase the dependability of the
system.

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
Disadvantages
below it. Performance can be a problem because of multiple levels of interpretation of a
service request as it is processed at each layer.

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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 as this is an efficient data sharing
mechanism.

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 The Repository pattern
Name Repository
All data in a system is managed in a central repository that is accessible to all system
Description
components. Components do not interact directly, only through the repository.
Figure on the next slide is an example of an IDE where the components use a repository of
Example system design information. Each software tool generates information which is then available
for use by other tools.
You should use this pattern when you have a system in which large volumes of information
When used 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.
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
Advantages
data can be managed consistently (e.g., backups done at the same time) as it is all in one
place.
The repository is a single point of failure so problems in the repository affect the whole
Disadvantages 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.

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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 Next slide shows 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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Pipe and filter architecture
• Functional transformations process their inputs to produce outputs.
• May be referred to as a pipe and filter model (as in UNIX shell).
• Variants of this approach are very common. When transformations
are sequential, this is a batch sequential model which is extensively
used in data processing systems.
• Not really suitable for interactive systems.

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 The pipe and filter pattern
Name Pipe and filter
The processing of the data in a system is organized so that each processing component (filter) is
Description discrete and carries out one type of data transformation. The data flows (as in a pipe) from one
component to another for processing.

Example An example of a pipe and filter system used for processing invoices is presented in the following.

Commonly used in data processing applications (both batch- and transaction-based) where inputs
When used
are processed in separate stages to generate related outputs.

Easy to understand and supports transformation reuse. Workflow style matches the structure of
Advantages many business processes. Evolution by adding transformations is straightforward. Can be
implemented as either a sequential or concurrent system.
The format for data transfer has to be agreed upon between communicating transformations. Each
transformation must parse its input and unparse its output to the agreed form. This increases system
Disadvantages
overhead and may mean that it is impossible to reuse functional transformations that use
incompatible data structures.

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An example of the pipe and filter architecture
used in a payments system

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Application architectures

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Application architectures
• Application systems are designed to meet an organisational 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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Application types
• Data processing applications
• Data driven applications that process data in batches without explicit user
intervention during the processing.
• Transaction processing applications
• Data-centred 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
• Data processing systems
• Billing systems;
• Payroll systems.
• Transaction processing systems
• E-commerce systems;
• Reservation systems.
• Event processing systems
• Word processors;
• Real-time systems.
• Language processing systems
• Compilers;
• Command interpreters.

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 Transaction processing systems
• Process user requests for information from a database or requests to
update the database.
• From a user perspective a transaction is:
• Any coherent sequence of operations that satisfies a goal;
• For example - find the times of flights from London to Paris.
• Users make asynchronous requests for service which are then
processed by a transaction manager.

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The structure of transaction processing
applications

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The software architecture of an ATM system

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 Information systems architecture
• Information systems have a generic architecture that can be organised
as a layered architecture.
• These are transaction-based systems as interaction with these
systems generally involves database transactions.
• Layers include:
• The user interface
• User communications
• Information retrieval
• System database

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Layered information system architecture

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The architecture of the Mentcare system

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Web-based information systems
• Information and resource management systems are now usually web-
based systems where the user interfaces are implemented using a
web browser.
• For example, e-commerce systems are Internet-based resource
management systems that accept electronic orders for goods or
services and then arrange delivery of these goods or services to the
customer.
• In an e-commerce system, the application-specific layer includes
additional functionality supporting a ‘shopping cart’ in which users
can place a number of items in separate transactions, then pay for
them all together in a single transaction.

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Server implementation
• These systems are often implemented as multi-tier client
server/architectures
• The web server is responsible for all user communications, with the user
interface implemented using a web browser;
• The application server is responsible for implementing application-specific
logic as well as information storage and retrieval requests;
• The database server moves information to and from the database and
handles transaction management.

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E-commerce system architecture
• E-commerce systems are Internet-based resource management
systems that accept electronic orders for goods or services.
• They are usually organised using a multi-tier architecture with
application layers associated with each tier.

Web Application Database

browser Webserver server server

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Language processing systems
• Accept a natural or artificial language as input and generate some
other representation of that language.
• May include an interpreter to act on the instructions in the language
that is being processed.
• Used in situations where the easiest way to solve a problem is to
describe an algorithm or describe the system data
• Meta-case tools process tool descriptions, method rules, etc and
generate tools.

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The architecture of a language processing
system

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Compiler components
• A lexical analyzer, which takes input language tokens and converts
them to an internal form.
• A symbol table, which holds information about the names of entities
(variables, class names, object names, etc.) used in the text that is
being translated.
• A syntax analyzer, which checks the syntax of the language being
translated.
• A syntax tree, which is an internal structure representing the program
being compiled.

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Compiler components (ctd…)
• A semantic analyzer that uses information from the syntax tree and
the symbol table to check the semantic correctness of the input
language text.
• A code generator that ‘walks’ the syntax tree and generates abstract
machine code.

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A repository architecture for a language
processing system

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A pipe and filter compiler architecture

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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.
• Transaction processing systems are interactive systems that allow
information in a database to be remotely accessed and modified by a
number of users.
• Language processing systems are used to translate texts from one
language into another and to carry out the instructions specified in
the input language. They include a translator and an abstract machine
that executes the generated language.

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