Architectural Design

Remark that the slides are highly adapted from Ian Sommerville, Software Engineering, 9th ed.
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.
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.
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.
Architectural conflicts
 Using large-grain components improves
performance but reduces maintainability.
 Introducing redundant data improves
availability but makes security more difficult.
 Localising safety-related features usually
means more communication so degraded
performance.
System structuring
 Concerned with decomposing the system into
interacting sub-systems.
 The architectural design is normally expressed
as a block diagram presenting an overview of
the system structure.
 More specific models showing how sub-
systems share data, are distributed and
interface with each other may also be
developed.
Packing robot control system

Vision
system

Object Arm Gripper

identification controller controller
system

Packaging
selection
system

Packing Conveyor
system controller
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.
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?
Architectural styles
 The architectural model of a system may
conform to a generic architectural model or
style.
 An awareness of these styles can simplify the
problem of defining system architectures.
 However, most large systems are
heterogeneous and do not follow a single
architectural style.
System organisation
 Reflects the basic strategy that is used to
structure a system.
 Three organisational styles are widely used:
 A shared data repository style;
 A shared services and servers style;
 An abstract machine or layered style.
The repository model
 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.
CASE toolset architecture

Design Code
editor generator

Design Project Program

translator repository editor

Design Report
analyser generator
Repository model characteristics
 Advantages
 Efficient way to share large amounts of data;
 Sub-systems need not be concerned with how data is
produced Centralised management e.g. backup, security,
etc.
 Sharing model is published as the repository schema.
 Disadvantages
 Sub-systems must agree on a repository data model.
Inevitably a compromise;
 Data evolution is difficult and expensive;
 No scope for specific management policies;
 Difficult to distribute efficiently.
Client-server model
 Distributed system model which shows how
data and processing is distributed across a
range of components.
 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.
Film and picture library

Client 1 Client 2 Client 3 Client 4

Internet

Catalogue Video Picture

server server server Web serv
er

Library Film clip Digitised Film and

catalogue files photographs photo info.
Client-server characteristics
 Advantages
 Distribution of data is straightforward;
 Makes effective use of networked systems. May require
cheaper hardware;
 Easy to add new servers or upgrade existing servers.
 Disadvantages
 No shared data model so sub-systems use different data
organisation. Data interchange may be inefficient;
 Redundant management in each server;
 No central register of names and services - it may be hard
to find out what servers and services are available.
Abstract machine (layered) model
 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.
Version management system

Configuration management system layer

Object management system layer

Database system layer

Operating system layer

Modular decomposition styles
 Styles of decomposing sub-systems into
modules.
 No rigid distinction between system
organisation and modular decomposition.
Sub-systems and modules
 A sub-system is a system in its own right
whose operation is independent of the
services provided by other sub-systems.
 A module is a system component that
provides services to other components but
would not normally be considered as a
separate system.
Modular decomposition
 Another structural level where sub-systems are
decomposed into modules.
 Two modular decomposition models covered
 An object model where the system is decomposed into
interacting object;
 A pipeline or data-flow model where the system is
decomposed into functional modules which transform
inputs to outputs.
 If possible, decisions about concurrency should be
delayed until modules are implemented.
Object models
 Structure the system into a set of loosely
coupled objects with well-defined interfaces.
 Object-oriented decomposition is concerned
with identifying object classes, their attributes
and operations.
 When implemented, objects are created from
these classes and some control model used to
coordinate object operations.
Invoice processing system

Customer Receipt
customer# invoice#
name date
address Invoice amount
credit period customer#
invoice#
date
amount
customer
Payment issue ()
sendReminder ()
invoice#
acceptPayment ()
date
sendReceipt ()
amount
customer#
Object model advantages
 Objects are loosely coupled so their
implementation can be modified without
affecting other objects.
 The objects may reflect real-world entities.
 OO implementation languages are widely
used.
 However, object interface changes may cause
problems and complex entities may be hard to
represent as objects.