Software architecture

Software architecture encompasses the set of 
significant decisions about the organization of a 
software system
− selection of the structural elements and their interfaces by 
which a system is composed
− behavior as specified in collaborations among those 
elements
− composition of these structural and behavioral elements into 
larger subsystem
− architectural style that guides this organization

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Software arch. (continued)
Software architecture also involves
usage
functionality
performance
resilience
reuse
comprehensibility
economic and technology constraints and tradeoffs
aesthetic concerns
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 Forces in software architecture
Functionality Technology churn

Performance Resilience Differences

  ­ No moving parts
  ­ New materials can be created
  ­ Physics can be changed

Throughput Fail safe Avoiding failure

  ­ Separation of concerns
  ­ Semantic consistency
  ­ Distribution of responsibilities

Capacity Fault tolerance

Availability

Have an architecture that makes sense before you write 3.5 million
lines of code.
  ­ Patrick Naugton

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Patterns
A pattern is a solution to a problem in a context
A pattern codifies specific knowledge collected 
from experience in a domain
All well­structured systems are full of patterns
idioms
design patterns
architectural patterns

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Architectural patterns
Distributed Layered
Event­driven MVC
Frame­based IR­centric
Batch Subsumption
Pipes and filters Disposable
Repository­centric
Blackboard Patentable
  ­ Hughes CAATS

Interpreter
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Layered architecture
Issues
Applications&    ­ Separation of concerns
 
interfaces

Major 
processes

Domain 
classes

Mechanisms

Services

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Distributed architecture
Issues
  ­ DCOM vs EJB vs CORBA
  ­ Distribution and migration
  ­ Fine grain/large grain objects
  ­ Stateless vs stateful services
  ­ Clustering
Clients   ­ Replication

Mechanisms
  ­ RPC
  ­ Transaction
      ­ Atomicity
      ­ Consistency
      ­ Isolation
      ­ Durability
LAN   ­ Messaging
  ­ Conversation
  ­ Request/response
  ­ Publish and subscribe
  ­ Broadcast

WAN
Servers

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Commercial frameworks
Similar to building
MTS/MSQS codes or local
covenants
CORBA
Enterprise Java Beans
Domino
SAP R/3
Delphi
Forte
Visual Basic
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MTS architecture
MTS executive Server

Class factory Class
Client wrapper factory

Proxy Stub Context

wrapper MTS
object

Context
object

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CORBA architecture

Application objects CORBA facilities CORBA domains

  ­ Organization specific   ­ User interface   ­ Financial services
  ­ Information management   ­ Health care
  ­ System management   ­ Telecommunications
  ­ Task management   ­ Other

Object request broker

CORBA services
  ­ Concurrency ­ Lifecycle ­ Trade ­ Query
  ­ Events ­ Naming ­ Start up ­ Relationships
  ­ Externalization ­ Security ­  Persistence ­ Transactions
  ­ Licensing ­ Time ­ Properties ­ Collections

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EJB architecture

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Architectural context
The choice of which building code or covenant you 
chose to live under is an architectural decision

− but by no means is this a sufficient architectural decision

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Focus over time
Discovery Invention Implementation

Focus

Time
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Architecture across the lifecycle
Inception Elaboration Construction Transition

Planning

Analysis

Architecture

Design

Implementation

Integration

Test/assessment

Preliminary Iteration Iteration Iteration Iteration Iteration Iteration Iteration

Iteration #1 #2 ... #n+1 #... #m #m+1 #m+2 ..

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For more information
This set of tutorial slides is entirely based on a talk 
delivered by Grady Booch.

The original talk can be downloaded from:
http://www.rational.com/media/whitepapers/sd98.zip

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