Chapter 2 Designing Architectures

By : Ms. Smita Dange

Copyright Richard N. Taylor, Nenad Medvidovic, and Eric M. Dashofy. All rights reserved.

Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Objectives
  

The Design Process Architectural Conception Refined Experience in Action :Styles and Architectural Patterns Architectural Conception in Absence of Experience

Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Goal Of the Chapter

 

Learn how architectures are created. Gives the idea about variety of approaches for designing software systems.

Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

How Do You Design?

Where do architectures come from? Creativity
1) 2) 3) 4) Fun! Fraught with peril May be unnecessary May yield the best 1) 2) 3) 4) Efficient in familiar terrain Not always successful Predictable outcome (+ & - ) Quality of methods varies

Method

Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Introduction


Design of software architecture occurs in an iterative manner. The first iteration of the architecture design produces a skeleton of a system that addresses some of the hardest questions about the system and provides the grounds for refining the requirements. The iterative process continues until the sub-components of a software system are defined and documented to a point where a detailed design can occur commence without architect s direct involvement.
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Engineering Design Process

 

Feasibility stage: identifying a set of feasible concepts Preliminary design stage: selection and development of the best concept. Detailed design stage: development of engineering descriptions of the concept. Planning stage: evaluating and altering the concept to suit the requirements of production, distribution, consumption and product retirement. Does this steps are equivalent to software engg part ???

Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

The Design Process (cont.)



Yes .you can compare with waterfall model ,spiral model.. Etc of s/w engg process. The view point represented by this process so pervades the software development world that it is hard to realize other choices are there for designing. But this standard approaches is having problems..

What ARE the Problems????

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Potential Problems


If the designer is unable to produce a set of feasible concepts, progress stops. As problems and products increase in size and complexity, the probability that any one individual can successfully perform the first steps decreases. The standard approach does not directly address the situation where system design is at stake, i.e. when relationship between a set of products is at issue. As complexity increases or the experience of the designer is not sufficient, alternative approaches to the design process must be adopted.
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Alternative Design Strategies



Standard  Linear model described above Cyclic  As problems or infeasible approaches are identified in stage 2 to 4 of the standard model ,the process can revert to an earlier stage Parallel  After stage 1 of the standard model ,independent alternatives are explored in parallel . Multiple independent attempts at design are initiated ,with no dependencies between them.  Independent alternatives are explored in parallel
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Alternative Design Strategies



Adaptive ( lay tracks as you go )  The next design strategy of the design activity is decided at the end of a given stage Incremental  Each stage of development is treated as a task of incrementally improving the existing design Note : The process should be observed as it proceeds and methods and approach used are modified as needed to focus on the best strategy and to avoid unpromising development.
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

2 .Architectural Conception


If you observer the standard approaches to architectural and engineering design says that first major step consist of identifying a feasible set of alternative arrangements for the design as a whole. Now ???? Is how to identify that set of viable arrangements??????????????? i.e feasible set Solution is used tools . What are the tools available ? The Architectural conception is focusing on the available tools .
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

The Tools of Software Engineering 101



The most basic design tools are abstraction ,modularity and separation of concerns ,anticipation of change and design of generality. Abstraction  Abstraction(1): look at details, and abstract up to concepts  Abstraction(2): choose concepts, then add detailed substructure, and move down

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

How Abstraction is tool ????

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Abstraction and the Simple Machines



 

What concepts should be chosen at the outset of a design task?  One technique: Search for a simple machine that serves as an abstraction of a potential system that will perform the required task  For instance, what kind of simple machine makes a software system embedded in a fax machine?  At core, it is basically just a little state machine. Simple machines provide a plausible first conception of how an application might be built. Every application domain has its common simple machines.
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Simple Machines
Domain Graphics Simple Machines Pixel arrays Transformation matrices Widgets Abstract depiction graphs Structured documents Layouts Finite state machines Hypertext Spreadsheets Form templates Hypertext Composite documents Matrices Mathematical functions Spreadsheets Databases Transactions

Word processing Process control Income Tax Software

Web pages Scientific computing Banking

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Abstraction ----As a Tool

 

Can We Say this Abstraction gives an arrangement of abstract parts . Example : Buidling Guitar choosing strings ,wood for fingerbard,side,top,bridge an so on. Move further downwards as concept of abstraction are refined into more concrete structure. Physics of vibrating strings ,wave propagation etc.
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Choosing the Level and Terms of Discourse



Any attempt to use abstraction as a tool must choose a level of discourse, and once that is chosen, must choose the terms of discourse. Alternative 1: initial level of discourse is one of the application as a whole (step-wise refinement). Alternative 2: work, initially, at a level lower than that of the whole application.  Once several such sub-problems are solved they can be composed together to form an overall solution Alternative 3: work, initially, at a level above that of the desired application.  E.g. handling simple application input with a general parser.
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Separation of Concerns


Separation of concerns is the subdivision of a problem into (hopefully) independent parts. For instance ,the Visual interface that a customer sees at bank s automatic teller machines is independent from the logic used to control operation on the customer's accounts. The difficulties arise when the issues are either actually or apparently intertwined.
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Separation of Concerns (cont.)

Separations of concerns frequently involves many tradeoffs Total independence of concepts may not be possible. Key example from software architecture: separation of components (computation) from connectors (communication)

 

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

The Grand Tool: Refined Experience

 

Experience must be reflected upon and refined. The lessons from prior work include not only the lessons of successes, but also the lessons arising from failure. Learn from success and failure of other engineers  Literature  Conferences Experience can provide that initial feasible set of alternative arrangements for the design as a whole .

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Patterns, Styles, and DSSAs

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

4. Architectural Conception in absence of Experience

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Traditional Web interaction

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Web services interaction

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Where do Web services come from?

Two words: Web services

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Service-Oriented Architecture

Service broker is optional depending on the SOA definition used

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

World Wide Web

  

Simplicity: Keep it simple Modular Design Tolerance: Be liberal in what you require but conservative in what you do Decentralization: distributed systems Uniform Resource Identifiers HTML (now XML) HTTP

  

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Why do we need an architecture?

Building a common abstract model SOAP 1.2 WSDL 1.2 Choreography Policy Understanding what pieces we need E.g. what does it mean to secure Web services?

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Web services: a definition

 

Definition: A Web service is a software system identified by a URI, whose public interfaces and bindings are defined and described using XML. Its definition can be discovered by other software systems. These systems may then interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its definition, using XML based messages conveyed by Internet protocols. What is a Web service and what isn't? Always corner cases: expressing as core concepts and relationships
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Web services core concepts and relationships

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

An example: agent


    

An agent is a program acting on behalf of another person, entity, or process. An agent isa computational resource An agent hasan identifier An agent hasan owner that is a legal entity An agent may provideone or more services An agent may requestzero or more services

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

END OF CHAPTER 2

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Domain-Specific Software Architectures



A DSSA is an assemblage of software components  specialized for a particular type of task (domain),  generalized for effective use across that domain, and  composed in a standardized structure (topology) effective for building successful applications. Since DSSAs are specialized for a particular domain they are only of value if one exists for the domain wherein the engineer is tasked with building a new application. DSSAs are the pre-eminent means for maximal reuse of knowledge and prior development and hence for developing a new architectural design.
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Architectural Patterns


An architectural pattern is a set of architectural design decisions that are applicable to a recurring design problem, and parameterized to account for different software development contexts in which that problem appears. Architectural patterns are similar to DSSAs but applied at a lower level and within a much narrower scope.

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

State-Logic-Display: Three-Tiered Pattern



Application Examples  Business applications  Multi-player games  Web-based applications

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice; Richard N. Taylor, Nenad Medvidovic, and Eric M. Dashofy; 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Model-View-Controller (MVC)


Objective: Separation between information, presentation and user interaction. When a model object value changes, a notification is sent to the view and to the controller. So that the view can update itself and the controller can modify the view if its logic so requires. When handling input from the user the windowing system sends the user event to the controller; If a change is required, the controller updates the model object.
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Model-View-Controller

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice; Richard N. Taylor, Nenad Medvidovic, and Eric M. Dashofy; 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Sense-Compute-Control

Objective: Structuring embedded control applications

Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice; Richard N. Taylor, Nenad Medvidovic, and Eric M. Dashofy; 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

The Lunar Lander: A Long-Running Example

 

A simple computer game that first appeared in the 1960 s Simple concept:  You (the pilot) control the descent rate of the Apollo-era Lunar Lander  Throttle setting controls descent engine  Limited fuel  Initial altitude and speed preset  If you land with a descent rate of < 5 fps: you win (whether there s fuel left or not)  Advanced version: joystick controls attitude & horizontal motion
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Sense-Compute-Control LL

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice; Richard N. Taylor, Nenad Medvidovic, and Eric M. Dashofy; 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Architectural Styles


 

An architectural style is a named collection of architectural design decisions that  are applicable in a given development context  constrain architectural design decisions that are specific to a particular system within that context  elicit beneficial qualities in each resulting system A primary way of characterizing lessons from experience in software system design Reflect less domain specificity than architectural patterns Useful in determining everything from subroutine structure to top-level application structure Many styles exist and we will discuss them in detail in the next lecture
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Definitions of Architectural Style



Definition. An architectural style is a named collection of architectural design decisions that  are applicable in a given development context  constrain architectural design decisions that are specific to a particular system within that context  elicit beneficial qualities in each resulting system. Recurring organizational patterns & idioms  Established, shared understanding of common design forms  Mark of mature engineering field.  Shaw & Garlan Abstraction of recurring composition & interaction characteristics in a set of architectures 42  Taylor

Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Basic Properties of Styles



A vocabulary of design elements  Component and connector types; data elements  e.g., pipes, filters, objects, servers A set of configuration rules  Topological constraints that determine allowed compositions of elements  e.g., a component may be connected to at most two other components A semantic interpretation  Compositions of design elements have well-defined meanings Possible analyses of systems built in a style
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Benefits of Using Styles



Design reuse  Well-understood solutions applied to new problems Code reuse  Shared implementations of invariant aspects of a style Understandability of system organization  A phrase such as client-server conveys a lot of information Interoperability  Supported by style standardization Style-specific analyses  Enabled by the constrained design space Visualizations  Style-specific depictions matching engineers mental models
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Style Analysis Dimensions



     

What is the design vocabulary?  Component and connector types What are the allowable structural patterns? What is the underlying computational model? What are the essential invariants of the style? What are common examples of its use? What are the (dis)advantages of using the style? What are the style s specializations?

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Some Common Styles



Traditional, languageinfluenced styles



Interpreter
 




Main program and subroutines Object-oriented Virtual machines Client-server Batch sequential Pipe and filter Blackboard Rule based

Interpreter Mobile code Event-based Publish-subscribe

Implicit invocation
 

Layered
 
 

Data-flow styles
 

Peer-to-peer Derived styles

 

C2 CORBA

Shared memory
 
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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Main Program and Subroutines LL

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Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice; Richard N. Taylor, Nenad Medvidovic, and Eric M. Dashofy; 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted with permission.