Software Architecture, Definition

 DEF1: The architecture of a software system defines the

system in terms of components/sub-systems and
interactions among those components.

 DEF2: The software architecture of a system is the

structure of the system, which comprise software
elements, the externally visible properties of those
elements, and the relationships among them

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Software Architecture-Definition
DEF 3: Architecture is the fundamental organization of a
system including its components, their relationships to
each other and to the environment and the principles
guiding its design and evolution

[IEEE Standard on the Recommended Practice for

Architectural Descriptions, 2000]

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Components and Connectors
 Components are connected by connectors
 They are the building blocks with which an architecture
can be described
 No standard notation has emerged yet

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The Architecture of a Packing Robot Control System
Software Architecture Patterns / Styles
1: Layered Architecture
 Organises the system into a set of layers each of which provide
a set of services
 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.
 Supports the incremental development of sub-systems in
different layers
 When a layer interface changes, only the adjacent layer is
affected

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Layered Architecture
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE LIBSYS SYSTEM

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LAYERED ARCHITECTURED OF THE HOSPITAL
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

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Layered Architecture of Library System
Software Architecture Patterns / Styles
2: 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.
 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.

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THE REPOSITORY STYLE

•Information System, Programming Environments,

Graphical Editors, AI Knowledge Bases, Reverse
Engineering System are the examples of Repository
Architecture Style.

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Repository Architecture
Software Architecture Patterns / Styles
3: Client-Server Architecture
 In a client–server architecture, the functionality of the
system is organized into services such as printing, data
management etc, with each service delivered from a
separate server
 Clients are users of these services and access servers to
make use of them.
 Network which allows clients to access servers.

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Client-Server Architecture For a Film Library
Software Architecture Patterns / Styles
4: Pipe and Filter Architecture
 The processing of the data in a system is organized so that
each processing component (filter) carries out one type of
data transformation
 The data flows (as in a pipe) from one component to
another for processing
 Inputs are processed in separate stages to generate related
outputs
 Not really suitable for interactive systems

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Pipe and Filter Architecture
Model Transformation
 The purpose of object (Class)model transformation is to:
 Simplify or optimize the original model
 Bringing it into closer compliance with all requirements in
the specification.
 A transformation may add, remove, or rename classes,
operations, associations, or attributes
 A transformation can also add information to the model or
remove information from it.
Model Transformation - Example
Refactoring
 A refactoring is a transformation of the source code that
improves its readability or modifiability without changing
the behavior of the system

 Refactoring aims at improving the design of a working

system by focusing on a specific field or method of a class
Refactoring - Example
Forward Engineering
 Forward engineering produces a source code that corresponds
to a model (e.g. Use Case model, class model, sequence model
etc)
 Many modeling constructs, such as attribute, can be
mechanically mapped to source code constructs supported by
the selected programming language (e.g. Java, C#)
 While the bodies and additional private methods are added by
developers
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Reverse Engineering
 Reverse engineering produces a model that corresponds to
source code

 This transformation is used when the design of the system

has been lost and must be recovered from the source code
Forward and Reverse Engineering
Forward Engineering
 Forward engineering is applied to a set of model elements
and results in a set of corresponding source code statements,
i.e. a class declaration, a Java/C# expression etc
 The purpose of forward engineering is to:
 Maintain a strong correspondence between the design models
and the code
 Reduce the number of errors introduced during implementation

 Decrease implementation effort

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Forward Engineering - Example
Reverse Engineering
 Reverse engineering is applied to a set of source code elements and results in a set
of model elements
 Purpose of this type of transformation is to recreate the model for an existing
system, either because
 The model was lost or never created, or

 It became out of sync with the source code

 Reverse engineering is essentially an inverse transformation of forward engineering

 Reverse engineering creates:

 A UML class for each class declaration statement

 Adds an attribute for each field

 Adds an operation for each method