Software Design

and Architecture
System Decomposition

Soha Makady
Example of Design Goals
• Reliability Good documentation
• Modifiability Well-defined interfaces
• Maintainability User-friendliness
• Understandability Reuse of components
• Adaptability Rapid development
• Reusability Minimum number of errors
• Efficiency Readability
• Portability Ease of learning
• Traceability of Ease of remembering
requirements Ease of use
• Fault tolerance Increased productivity
• Backward-compatibility Low-cost
• Cost-effectiveness Flexibility
• Robustness
• High-performance
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Stakeholders have different Design Goals

Low cost Functionality

Increased productivity User-friendliness
Backward compatibility Usability
Traceability of requirements Runtime Ease of learning
Rapid development Efficiency Fault tolerant
Flexibility Robustness
Reliability
Portability
Client Good documentation
End
(Customer) User
Minimum # of errors
Modifiability, Readability
Reusability, Adaptability
Well-defined interfaces Developer/
Maintainer
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Typical Design Trade-offs

• Functionality v. Usability
• Cost v. Robustness
• Efficiency v. Portability
• Rapid development v. Functionality

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System Design Concepts

• Subsystem decomposition
• Services and subsystem interfaces
• Coupling and Coherence

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 Services and subsystem interfaces
• Subsystem
• Subsystems provide services to other
subsystems
• The objects and classes from the object model
are the “seeds” for the subsystems
• In UML subsystems are modeled as packages
• Service
• A set of related operations that share a common
purpose
• The origin (“seed”) for services are the use cases
from the functional model

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 Services and subsystem interfaces
• During the early stages of system design, we do
not know the exact services provided by each
subsystem.
• In such cases, we use the dependency notation.

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Services and subsystem interfaces
• Subsystem services: During system design, we
define the subsystem in terms of the services it
provides.
• A subsystem consists of a collection of classes,
associations, operations, events and constraints
that are closely interrelated with each other
• Subsystem interface: During the object design,
we define the subsystem interface in terms of the
operations it provides.

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Services and subsystem interfaces
Provided and Required Interfaces in UML

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Services and subsystem interfaces
• Application programmer’s interface (API)
• The API is the specification of the subsystem
interface in a specific programming language
• APIs are defined during implementation
• The terms subsystem interface and API are often
confused with each other
• The term API should not be used during system
design and object design, but only during
implementation.

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Example: Notification subsystem

• Service provided by Notification Subsystem

• LookupChannel()
• SubscribeToChannel()
• SendNotice()
• UnscubscribeFromChannel()
• Subsystem Interface of Notification Subsystem
• Set of fully typed UML operations
• API of Notification Subsystem
• Implementation in Java

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Subsystem Interface Object

• Good design: The subsystem interface object

describes all the services of the subsystem
interface

• Subsystem Interface Object

• The set of public operations provided by a subsystem

Subsystem Interface Objects can be realized with the

Façade pattern (=> lecture on design patterns).

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Coupling and Coherence of Subsystems

• Goal: Reduce system complexity while allowing

change
• Coherence measures dependency among classes
• High coherence: The classes in the subsystem perform
similar tasks and are related to each other via many
associations
• Low coherence: Lots of miscellaneous and auxiliary
classes, almost no associations
• Coupling measures dependency among
subsystems
• High coupling: Changes to one subsystem will have high
impact on the other subsystem
• Low coupling: A change in one subsystem does not affect
any other subsystem.

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 Coupling and Coherence of Subsystems
Good Design
• Goal: Reduce system complexity while allowing
change
• Coherence measures dependency among classes
• High coherence: The classes in the subsystem perform
similar tasks and are related to each other via
associations
• Low coherence: Lots of miscellaneous and auxiliary
classes, no associations
• Coupling measures dependency among
subsystems
• High coupling: Changes to one subsystem will have high
impact on the other subsystem
• Low coupling: A change in one subsystem does not affect
any other subsystem

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Coupling and Coherence of Subsystems

Any issues?
Solution?

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Coupling and Coherence of Subsystems

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Coupling and Coherence of Subsystems

Any issues?
Solution?

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Coupling and Coherence of Subsystems

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Required Readings

• Chapter 6 from Bruegge’s OOSE textbook:

Bruegge, Bernd, and Allen H. Dutoit. "Object-oriented
software Engineering." ed: Prentice Hall , Third Edtiton

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