Lecture 6 – Architectural Design

Part 1

Source : https://ifs.host.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Books/SE9/Presentations/index.html
Lecture 6 Architectural design 1
Topics covered

 Architectural design decisions

 Architectural views
 Architectural patterns
 Application architectures

Lecture 6 Architectural design 2

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 3

Architectural design

 An early stage of the system design process.

 Represents the link between specification and design
processes.
 Often carried out in parallel with some specification
activities.
 It involves identifying major system components and
their communications.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 4

The architecture of a packing robot control
system

Lecture 6 Architectural design 5

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 6

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 7

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 8

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 9

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 10

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 11

Architectural design decisions

 Is there a generic application architecture that can be

used?
 How will the system be distributed?
 What architectural styles are appropriate?
 What approach will be used to structure the system?
 How will the system be decomposed into modules?
 What control strategy should be used?
 How will the architectural design be evaluated?
 How should the architecture be documented?

Lecture 6 Architectural design 12

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.
 Discussed later in this Part.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 13

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.
Lecture 6 Architectural design 14
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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 15

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)

Lecture 6 Architectural design 16

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 17

 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 Lecture
in different ways with changes made in18 one
6 Architectural design
The organization of the Model-View-Controller

Lecture 6 Architectural design 19

Web application architecture using the MVC
pattern

Lecture 6 Architectural design 20

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 21

 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
Lecture 6 Architecturaladesign
clean separation between layers
22 is
often difficult and a high-level layer may have to interact
A generic layered architecture

Lecture 6 Architectural design 23

The architecture of the LIBSYS system

Lecture 6 Architectural design 24

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 viewssuch 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.
Lecture 6 Architectural design 25
Lecture 6 – Architectural Design

Part 2

Lecture 6 Architectural design 26

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 27

 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 6a
Lecture singledesign
Architectural point of failure so problems in
28 the
A repository architecture for an IDE

Lecture 6 Architectural design 29

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 30

 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
Lecture 6 Architectural it depends on the network as
design 31 well
A client–server architecture for a film library

Lecture 6 Architectural design 32

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 33

 The pipe and filter pattern

Name Pipe and filter

Description The processing of the data in a system is organized so that each

processing component (filter) is discrete and carries out one
type of data transformation. The data flows (as in a pipe) from
one component to another for processing.
Example Figure 6.13 is an example of a pipe and filter system used for
processing invoices.
When used Commonly used in data processing applications (both batch- and
transaction-based) where inputs are processed in separate
stages to generate related outputs.
Advantages Easy to understand and supports transformation reuse. Workflow
style matches the structure of many business processes.
Evolution by adding transformations is straightforward. Can be
implemented as either a sequential or concurrent system.
Disadvantages 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 overhead
Lecture and may mean that it is impossible
6 Architectural design 34
to reuse functional transformations that use incompatible data
An example of the pipe and filter architecture

Lecture 6 Architectural design 35

Application architectures

Lecture 6 Architectural design 36

Use of application architectures

Lecture 6 Architectural design 37

Examples of application types

Lecture 6 Architectural design 38

Application type examples

Lecture 6 Architectural design 39

Transaction processing systems

Lecture 6 Architectural design 40

The structure of transaction processing
applications

Lecture 6 Architectural design 41

The software architecture of an ATM system

Lecture 6 Architectural design 42

Information systems architecture

Lecture 6 Architectural design 43

Layered information system architecture

Lecture 6 Architectural design 44

The architecture of the MHC-PMS

Lecture 6 Architectural design 45

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.
Lecture 6 Architectural design 46
Server implementation

 These systems are often implemented as multi-tier client

server/architectures (discussed in Lecture 18)
 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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 47

Language processing systems

Lecture 6 Architectural design 48

The architecture of a language processing
system

Lecture 6 Architectural design 49

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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 50

Compiler components

 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.

Lecture 6 Architectural design 51

A pipe and filter compiler architecture

Lecture 6 Architectural design 52

A repository architecture for a language
processing system

Lecture 6 Architectural design 53

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.
Lecture 6 Architectural design 54