UNIT-II

System Modeling: Context models, Interaction models, Structural models,

Behavioural models, Model driven architecture.

Architectural Design: Design decisions, Architectural views, Architectural patterns

and architectures

Design and implementation: Object oriented design using UML, Design patterns,
Implementation issues, Open-source development

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Chapter 6 – Architectural Design

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 2

Topics covered

 Architectural design decisions

 Architectural views
 Architectural patterns
 Application architectures

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 3

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.
Chapter 6 Architectural Design 4
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

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 5

The architecture of a packing robot
control system

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 6

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 7

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 8

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 [Link]
requirements for model semantics depends on
how the models are used.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 9

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 10

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.
Chapter 6 Architectural Design 11
Architectural design decisions

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 12

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 13

Architectural design decisions

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 14

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 15

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 Chapter 6 Architectural Design 16
Architectural views

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 17

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.
Chapter 6 Architectural Design 18
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)

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 20

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 the are not useful.
 Patterns may be represented using tabular and
graphical descriptions.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 23

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

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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

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.

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A generic layered architecture

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The architecture of the iLearn system

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 30

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 31

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 34

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 35

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

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 and may mean that it is impossible to reuse
functional transformations that use incompatible data structures.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 38

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

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 39

Application architectures

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 40

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 41

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 42

Examples of 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. Chapter 6 Architectural Design 43
Application type examples

 Two very widely used generic application

architectures are transaction processing systems
and language processing systems.
 Transaction processing systems
 E-commerce systems;
 Reservation systems.
 Language processing systems
 Compilers;
 Command interpreters.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 44

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

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 49

The architecture of the Mentcare system

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 50

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
Chapter transactions, then 51
6 Architectural Design
Server implementation

 These systems are often implemented as multi-

tier client server/architectures (discussed in
Chapter 17)
 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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 52

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 53

The architecture of a language
processing system

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 54

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 55

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.

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 56

A repository architecture for a language
processing system

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A pipe and filter compiler architecture

Chapter 6 Architectural Design 58

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 Chapter 6 Architectural Design
describe its advantages and 59
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 Chapter
that6 Architectural
executes Design the generated 60