Cours 1 : Introduction

Question 1

Define software architecture.

Answer 1

The architecture of a software system is defined as the fundamental organization of the system, embodied in its components, their relationships with each other and their environment, and the principles that guide its design and evolution. The architecture of a software system is the set of structures necessary to reason about the system, which include the software elements, the relations between them and the properties of each.
• It answers to “what?”
• On a model level
• Packages, components and relationships
• A more abstract level of decisions
• The decisions that need to be made in advance.
• The decisions which are very expensive to change during development.
• Relevant to the operational objectives and the non-functional
requirements.
• It includes:
• Modules
• Databases and data technologies
• Execution and deployment environments

Question 2

Define Design.

Answer 2

• It answers to “how?”
• How are we going to implement the architecture?
• More concrete elements:
• Classes
• Methods/Functions
• Data tables
• Relevant to the functional requirements.
• Elements that can change during development (maintenance phase)
• Reengineering (refactoring)
• Evolution
• Adaptation