Architecture Views

Intro

• A view is a representation of a coherent set of architectural elements as written by and read by system stakeholders.

Architectural Structures

• A structure is the set of elements itself, as they exist in software or hardware.
• Arch structures can be divided into three groups.

Module structures

• Elements are modules which are units of implementation. Assigned areas of functional responsibility.
• Less emphasis on how software works at runtime.
• Allows to understand primary responsibility of each module, other modules a module can use, related modules.

Decomposition

• Units are modules related to by "is a submodule of" relation.
• Shows how larger modules are decomposed into smaller ones.

Uses

• Units are related to by the uses relation

Layers

• When uses relation is controlled - a system of layers emerges.

Class

• Modules are classes. Relations are "inherits-from" or "is-an-instance-of".
• Here, elements are runtime components and connectors.

Structural view

• Useful for members of development team, maintainers, project manager, analyst and the architect.
• Define the computational elements of a system and the organization of those elements.
• What software elements comprise the system?
• What are their interfaces?
• How do they interconnect?
• What are the mechanisms for interconnection?

• Use stereotyped <<module>> in UML to display modules.
• Display interfaces in the UML diagram.
• Show dependencies of modules on each other.

Component and connector structures

• Allows understanding of major executing components and how they interact.
• How data flow through system, what parts of system run in parallel.
• Useful for developers, maintainers.

Communicating Processes

• Units are processes.
• Relation is attachment, showing how components and connectors are hooked together.

Concurrency

• Units are components and connectors are threads.

Shared data/Repository

• Comprises components and connectors that create, store and access persistent data.

Client Server

• Components are clients and servers. Connectors are protocols and messages.

Allocation structures

• Shows relationship between software elements and elements in the external environments.
• Allows understanding on which processor does software element execute on. Files in which each element during development during testing.
• Useful for project manager, end users, maintainers, analyst, architect, infrastructure support.

Deployment

• How software is assigned to hardware processing and communication elements.

Implementation

• S/w to file structure. Essential for build processes.

Work assignment

• Assign modules to teams.