Chapter 10Architectural Design.ppt

Architectural Design Process * Architectural Design Steps Represent the system in context Define archetypes Refine the architecture into components Describe instantiations of the system A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his client to plant vines. Frank Lloyd Wright * 1. Represent the System in Context Target system I/F I/F I/F I/F I/F Actors Peers Superordinate systems Subordinate systems Used by Produces or consumes Produces or consumes Depends on Uses More on next slide * 1. Represent the System in Context continued Use an architectural context diagram ACD that shows The identification and flow of all information into and out of a system The specification of all interfaces Any relevant support processing from/by other systems An ACD models the manner in which software interacts with entities external to its boundaries An ACD identifies systems that interoperate with the target system Super-ordinate systems Use target system as part of some higher level processing scheme Sub-ordinate systems Used by target system and provide necessary data or processing Peer-level systems Interact on a peer-to-peer basis with target system to produce or consume data Actors People or devices that interact with target system to produce or consume data * 2. Define Archetypes Archetypes indicate the important abstractions within the problem domain i.e., they model information An archetype is a class or pattern that represents a core abstraction that is critical to the design of an architecture for the target system It is also an abstraction from a class of programs with a common structure and includes class-specific design strategies and a collection of example program designs and implementations Only a relatively small set of archetypes is required in order to design even relatively complex systems The target system architecture is composed of these archetypes They represent stable elements of the architecture They may be instantiated in diff