1.1 Consider Design…

… back in the “gold old days” of WaterFall.

A classic division would be

• High level design

  • Dividing the system into modules.

• Low-Level Design
  • Selecting the data structures and algorithms for a specific module.

1.2 Too Many Cooks…

1.2.1 An Alternate Breakdown of Design

As always, Waterfallers tend to over-manage, but the emergence of an earlier design phase is noteworthy.

1.3 Architectural Design

The collection of decisions that need to be common to all components.

Examples of architectural design decisions would be

• Will the system run on a single machine or be distributed over multiple CPUs?
• Will outputs be stored in a file or in a database?
• How will run-time errors be handled?

Even as process models other than Waterfall have become more common, the importance of architectural design has remained.

1.4 Towards Incremental Processes

1.4.1 Iterative Development

• “Iterative” means that we can re-visit decisions, design, and code produced in earlier iterative steps.

• “Incremental” means that each iteration produces a small unit of additional functional behavior.

  • Something that can be demonstrated.
  • Something that works now, but wasn’t working before.

  We don’t try to build major subsystems of the project in a single pass.

1.4.2 Keeping Iterative Development on Track

2 Software Architecture

2.1 Dimensions of Software Architecture

• Primary Interface
• Deployment
• Error handling
• Data Storage
• Modular structure

This is my own listing – I have not seen this notion of dimensions addressed elsewhere.

2.1.1 Primary Interface

• CLI
• Protocol
• GUI
  • Application
  • Web-based
• API (library)

2.1.3 Error Handling

• Throwing exceptions or shut down,
• console or pop-up messages
• logging

2.1.4 Data Storage

• Centralized or distributed
• database or files

2.1.5 Modular structure

• Which modules are allowed to interact with which other modules?
• What limitations are placed on dependencies between modules?

3 Common Architectural Patterns

3.1 Pipes & Filters

a.k.a. Data Flow models

dimensions: modular structure (but not deployment)

• System is described as a graph of components passing data to one another.

3.1.1 Example: Compilers

3.1.2 Example: Extract

3.2.1 Example: UIMA/Watson

• A derivative is the Unstructured Information Management Architecture, used in the IBM Watson project, which combines a pipeline of modules with an unstructured blackboard.

3.3 Layered Abstract Machines

dimensions: modularity

• Functionality divided into layers
• Each layer calls upon services provided only by the layer beneath and provides services to the layer above

3.3.1 Example: Every Operating System Textbook Ever Written

3.4 N-Tier Architectures

dimensions: modularity, deployment

Similar to Layered Abstract Machines, but

• each layer is independent of the others.

• e.g., a client-server system is a 2-tier architecture

3.5 Distributed Peer-to-Peer

dimensions: deployment, interface

A general graph of independent processes joined by a common protocol for communication.

dimensions: modularity, interface

An approach to organizing programs featuring a GUI

• Separate the system into 3 subsystems
  • Model: the “real” data managed by the program
  • View: portrayal of the model
    • updated as the data changes
  • Controller: input & interaction handlers

3.6.1 MVC Interactions

• The Model has no dependencies upon the View or Controller and cannot initiate interactions with either.
• The View can examine the Model – necessary in order to render a visible presentation of the model state
• The View has no dependencies upon the Controller and cannot initiate interactions with it.
• The Controller can examine and alter the Model (e.g., permitting data entry) and the View (e.g., scrolling, paging, zooming)

3.7 Micro-Services

dimensions: deployment, interface

“A suite of small services, each running in its own process and communicating with lightweight mechanisms, often an HTTP resource API.” (Martin Fowler)

• Idea is to keep each service relatively small and specialized. “Do one thing and do it well” (Krause)

• Because each service is an independent program, may internally employ other architectural patterns.