Architectural Blueprints The 41 View Model of software

Architectural Blueprints – The “ 4+1” View Model of software Architecture from IEEE Software (November 1995) By Philippe Kruchten Rational Software

General Concept of Software Architecture • Software Architecture “deals” with – design and – implementation of the high level structure of software. • Software Architecture is the “result” of – assembling a number of architectural elements – in some well chosen form to satisfy major functionality as well as nonfunctional requirements From Perry & Wolfe: Software Architecture = { Elements, Form, Rationale/Constraints }

An Architectural Model • Kruchten Proposes a Model composed of 5 “Views” : 1. 2. 3. 4. Logical View Process View Physical View Development View + 5. Scenario or Use Case

In Describing Each of the 5 Views, Kruchten uses a Common Methodology 1. The Notations that will be used for the view is defined: – – – 2. Elements to express : components, containers, connectors Form to express : “pattern” that worked Rationale/Constraints to express : some requirements to be satisfied For each “view” also show: – – An example of blueprint, with the view’s notation The architectural styles that may be utilized for that view

Logical Architecture (View) • Logical view primarily describes the services provided to the users. The system is decomposed into key abstractions (e. g. classes) that describe the functional requirements. – May include the identification of common components across the system. – Uses OO Approach &Class Diagrams, which shows • i) Classes and • ii) the Relationships (inheritance, composition, usage, etc. ) among Classes – Alternative to OO, may use E-R diagrams for data driven systems

Logical Architecture (View) • Notation used for the OO approach of Logical View is derived from Booch and include: – A) Components --- Class; Class Utility; Parameterized Class; Class Category – B) Connectors --- Association; Containment & Aggregation; Usage; Inheritance; Instantiation • Style: – Object Oriented Style class usage inheritance • A Logical Blueprint – Some pictorial representation, using Booch Notation, of the logical view of a design.

Process Architecture (View) • Process view primarily describes the non-functional aspects of the requirements and execution control such as the performance or integrity and addresses issues such as concurrency or distribution – Describes the thread of control of an operation of how a process (i. e. set of tasks) is executed. • Process is a set of tasks that form an executable unit which can be started, controlled, terminated, etc. ) • A task is a thread of control that can be individually scheduled on one processing node – Tasks also communicate via some well defined mechanism – Process i) loads and ii) flow of messages can be estimated via studying a blueprint of process view.

Process Architecture (View) • Notation used for Process View is derived from Booch’s proposal for Ada tasking and includes: – A) Components --- Process; Simplified Process; Periodic Process adornment – B) Connectors ---- Unspecified; Message (unidirectional and bidirectional); Remote Procedure Call; Event Broadcast message simplified process • Style: (several may be used) process RPC – Pipe and filter, client server • Process Blueprint: – Some diagram, using the defined notation, to depict the flow of messages from process to process.

Development Architecture (View) • Development view focuses on the software module organization as they are packaged into small units of subsystems or libraries that can be developed by a small unit of developers. – Subsystems are organized in a hierarchy of layers – The rules that govern the development architecture may include: partitioning; grouping; visibility – Takes into account of the “internal requirements” related to development, project management, re-use, toolset constraints, development platform and language constraints, etc.

Development Architecture (View) • Notation used for development view is again derived from Booch: – Components ---- Module; Subsystem; Layer – Connectors ---- References; Compilation Dependency layer • Style: – Layered (4 to 6 layers) subsystem module reference • Development Blueprint: – Some diagram depicting the layers of a software system that matches the logical view of the same system. Contained within each layer are several subsystems, which in turn may contain several modules.

Physical Architecture (View) • Physical view focuses on the non-functional requirements of the “hardware” system on top of which the software resides. – The various elements identified are parts of the physical configuration needed to run the software • These may include nodes, processors, devices, lines, etc. – The configurations may be for development purpose, for testing purpose, deployment purpose, etc.

Physical Architecture (View) • Notations used are pretty much box and line: – Components --- processors; devices – Connectors --- communication lines; high bandwidth bus processor device comm. line high bandwidth communications • Style: – There is no specific style except possibly hierarchical • Physical Blueprint: – Diagram depicting the process architecture mapped onto the physical architecture.

My Comments • It is good to realize that architectural design is a result of considering many different perspectives. Clearly, we need to somehow combine these differing views into one cohesive architecture ---or do we? • Also, do we always need the logical, process, development, and physical views? – Do we need more? ---- how about Data View? – Can we do with less?

Use Scenarios to Converge and Test the Views • Come up with scenarios of “most” important or “most” frequently encountered use cases and run through the different views. • Note that Logical views describes the “components”, and Process view describes the “execution” control and synchronization. So use the scenarios to converge (map) the Logical and Process Views together so that we can: – Discover if we defined all the needed “components” – Discover if the components can interact in the expected manner Thus the “major” scenarios form the 5 th View or the “ 4+1” Views!

Mapping the Views is Hard • Do all the views have to be carried to the same level of depth before we can map them together? • How do we map the views? – Logical View to Process view • Basically this is looking at the “objects” or “components” and asking how the execution path will look like. – So we need to know the characteristics of these objects or components: Autonomy; Persistence; Subordination; Distribution – We need to know the execution thread of control in the process view: inside-out locus of control; outside in locus of control – Logical View to Development View • Looking at implementing a “class” as a module and packaging modules together. Should the modules be implemented and packaged in a specific pattern such as “layered”? – Process View to Physical View • Looking at the processing or execution control, we may choose to deploy different processes on different hardware nodes.

Iterative Approach to Designing an Architecture • The phases of (sketching, organizing, specifying, and Optimizing) architecting should not be a linear, single pass approach --- a more iterative “scenario driven” approach should be taken: – Start with a number of main scenarios and run them through the “strawman” architecture. – The architectural elements discovered through this scenario driven approach is documented via logical, process, development, and physical views. – Use more scenarios to iterate through the views and capture the architecture (including the rationale part) until satisfied ---

The Architecture must be Documented • Architectural Document should include (my version): – Architectural goals & constraints – Software Architectural Views: • • • Logical Views (representing user functionalities) Process views (representing system execution ) Development Views (representing implementation breakdown ) Physical Views (representing deployment/hardware assignments) Data view (representing the key files and tables) – Scenarios – Rationale – Software Architecture (combined all the views and rationale) = {elements, forms, rationale} The author includes more such as: change history, scope, references, performance & size, quality, etc.

My Further Comments 1. 2. Addressing multiple Views make sense. Seems that Data view should be included as one of the “required” and Development View may be an “option”. The hardest part of moving forward with multiple views is “how do you combine” them: 3. – – – The views must be at the same level of depth The views must not have any conflicting information The views must be clearly expressed in languages that allows “combination” into a software architectural representation language.