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Software Architecture & Design Introduction

The architecture of a system describes its major components, their relationships (structures), and
how they interact with each other. Software architecture and design includes several contributory
factors such as Business strategy, quality attributes, human dynamics, design, and IT environment.

We can segregate Software Architecture and Design into two distinct phases: Software Architecture
and Software Design. In Architecture, nonfunctional decisions are cast and separated by the
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functional requirements. In Design, functional requirements are accomplished.
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Software Architecture

Architecture serves as a blueprint for a system. It provides an abstraction to manage the system
complexity and establish a communication and coordination mechanism among components.
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It defines a structured solution to meet all the technical and operational requirements, while
optimizing the common quality attributes like performance and security.

Further, it involves a set of significant decisions about the organization related to software
development and each of these decisions can have a considerable impact on quality,
maintainability, performance, and the overall success of the final product. These decisions
comprise of −

Selection of structural elements and their interfaces by which the system is

composed.

Behavior as specified in collaborations among those elements.

Composition of these structural and behavioral elements into large subsystem.

Architectural decisions align with business objectives.

Architectural styles guide the organization.

Software Design

Software design provides a design plan that describes the elements of a system, how they fit, and
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work together to fulfill the requirement of the system. The objectives of having a design plan are as
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follows −

To negotiate system requirements, and to set expectations with customers, marketing, and
management personnel.

Act as a blueprint during the development process.

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Guide the implementation tasks, including detailed design, coding, integration, and testing.

It comes before the detailed design, coding, integration, and testing and after the domain analysis,
requirements analysis, and risk analysis.

Goals of Architecture

The primary goal of the architecture is to identify requirements that affect the structure of the
application. A well-laid architecture reduces the business risks associated with building a technical
solution and builds a bridge between business and technical requirements.

Some of the other goals are as follows −

Expose the structure of the system, but hide its implementation details.

Realize all the use-cases and scenarios.

Try to address the requirements of various stakeholders.

Handle both functional and quality requirements.

Reduce the goal of ownership and improve the organizations market position.

Improve quality and functionality offered by the system.

Improve external confidence in either the organization or system.

Limitations
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Software architecture is still an emerging
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discipline within software engineering. It has the following
limitations −

Lack of tools and standardized ways to represent architecture.

Lack of analysis methods to predict whether architecture will result in an implementation that
meets the requirements.
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Lack of awareness of the importance of architectural design to software development.

Lack of understanding of the role of software architect and poor communication among
stakeholders.

Lack of understanding of the design process, design experience and evaluation of design.

Role of Software Architect

A Software Architect provides a solution that the technical team can create and design for the entire
application. A software architect should have expertise in the following areas −

Design Expertise

Expert in software design, including diverse methods and approaches such as object-oriented
design, event-driven design, etc.

Lead the development team and coordinate the development efforts for the integrity of the
design.

Should be able to review design proposals and tradeoff among themselves.

Domain Expertise

Expert on the system being developed and plan for software evolution.

Assist in the requirement investigation process, assuring completeness and consistency.

Coordinate the definition of domain model for the system being developed.

Technology Expertise

Expert on available technologies that helps in the implementation of the system.

Coordinate the selection of programming language, framework, platforms, databases, etc.

Methodological Expertise
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Expert on software development methodologies that may be adopted during SDLC (Software
Development Life Cycle).

Choose the appropriate approaches for development that helps the entire team.
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Hidden Role of Software Architect

Facilitates the technical work among team members and reinforcing the trust relationship in
the team.

Information specialist who shares knowledge and has vast experience.

Protect the team members from external forces that would distract them and bring less value
to the project.

Deliverables of the Architect

A clear, complete, consistent, and achievable set of functional goals

A functional description of the system, with at least two layers of decomposition

A concept for the system

A design in the form of the system, with at least two layers of decomposition

A notion of the timing, operator attributes, and the implementation and operation plans

A document or process which ensures functional decomposition is followed, and the form of
interfaces is controlled

Quality Attributes

Quality is a measure of excellence or the state of being free from deficiencies or defects. Quality
attributes are the system properties that are separate from the functionality of the system.

Implementing quality attributes makes it easier to differentiate a good system from a bad one.
Attributes are overall factors that affect runtime behavior, system design, and user experience.

They can be classified as −

Static Quality Attributes

Reflect the structure of a system and organization, directly related to architecture, design, and source
code. They are invisible to end-user, but affect the development and maintenance cost, e.g.:
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modularity, testability, maintainability, etc.
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Dynamic Quality Attributes

Reflect the behavior of the system during its execution. They are directly related to systems
architecture, design, source code, configuration, deployment parameters, environment, and platform.

They are visible to the end-user and exist at runtime, e.g. throughput, robustness, scalability, etc.
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Quality Scenarios

Quality scenarios specify how to prevent a fault from becoming a failure. They can be divided into six
parts based on their attribute specifications −

Source − An internal or external entity such as people, hardware, software, or physical

infrastructure that generate the stimulus.

Stimulus − A condition that needs to be considered when it arrives on a system.

Environment − The stimulus occurs within certain conditions.

Artifact − A whole system or some part of it such as processors, communication channels,

persistent storage, processes etc.

Response − An activity undertaken after the arrival of stimulus such as detect faults, recover
from fault, disable event source etc.

Response measure − Should measure the occurred responses so that the requirements can
be tested.

Common Quality Attributes

The following table lists the common quality attributes a software architecture must have −

Category Quality Attribute Description

Defines the consistency and coherence of

Conceptual Integrity the overall design. This includes the way
components or modules are designed.

Ability of the system to undergo changes

Design Qualities Maintainability
with a degree of ease.

Defines the capability for components and

Reusability subsystems to be suitable for use in other
applications.

Run-time Qualities Ability of a system or different systems to

operate successfully by communicating and
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exchanging information with other external
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systems written and run by external parties.

Defines how easy it is for system

Manageability
administrators to manage the application.

Ability of a system to remain operational over

Reliability
time.
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Ability of a system to either handle the load

increase without impacting the performance
Scalability
of the system or the ability to be readily
enlarged.

Capability of a system to prevent malicious

Security or accidental actions outside of the designed
usages.

Indication of the responsiveness of a system

Performance to execute any action within a given time
interval.

Defines the proportion of time that the

system is functional and working. It can be
Availability
measured as a percentage of the total
system downtime over a predefined period.

Ability of the system to provide information

Supportability helpful for identifying and resolving issues
when it fails to work correctly.
System Qualities

Measure of how easy it is to create test

Testability
criteria for the system and its components.

Defines how well the application meets the

User Qualities Usability requirements of the user and consumer by
being intuitive.

Accountability for satisfying all the

Architecture Quality Correctness
requirements of the system.

Ability of the system to run under different

Portability
computing environment.

Ability to make separately developed

Non-runtime Quality Integrality components of the system work correctly
together.

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Modifiability
accommodate changes to its software.
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Business quality Cost of the system with respect to time to

attributes Cost and schedule market, expected project lifetime & utilization
of legacy.
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Use of system with respect to market

Marketability
competition.

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