Software Design

Overview of Software Design

Software design transforms user requirements into a suitable form for coding and implemen…

Definition and Purpose It represents client requirements from the Software Requirement Specification (SRS) document into an implementable…

The design phase marks the transition from the problem domain to the solution domain in the Software Development Life Cycle…

It serves as a blueprint for the final software product, detailing architecture, module relationships, and algorithmic…
Importance of Software Design
A well-structured design model encompasses architecture, interfaces, and design documenta…

Software Design Process

The software design process consists of three main phases: architectural design, physical design, and detailed…

Focuses on the external behavior of the software prod…

Architectural Design
Considers business aspects, technology, data structures, performance criteria, and
process structure.
high-level
Phases of Software Design
Refines the conceptual view of the system by identifying major modules and their interconnec…
Physical Design
Involves decomposing modules into sub-modules and defining data struc…

Concentrates on the algorithmic specification of each mod…

Detailed Design
Includes interface descriptions, data stores, and package specifica…

Objectives and Characteristics of Good Software Design

Correctness: Design must align with requiremen…

Completeness: All components, including data structures and interfaces, should be in…

Efficiency: Resources must be utilized effectively.

Key Objectives
Flexibility: Design should accommodate changing…

Consistency: Avoid inconsistencies in de…

Maintainability: Design should be simple for future mainte…

Characteristics of Good Software Design Correctness, Efficiency, Understandability, Maintainability, Simplicity, Completeness, Verifiability, Portability, Modularity, Reliability,…

Purpose of Design

Design integrates customer requirements, business needs, and technical considera…

Integration of Requiremen…
It allows for quality assessment and improvement before coding be…

Designers must practice diversification and convergence, selecting components that meet defined require…
Design Process
The design process is iterative, refining from high-level abstraction to detailed specifica…

From Analysis Model to Design Model

Each element of the analysis model provides necessary information for creating design…

Data/Class Design Transforms analysis classes into design classes with required data struc…

Transformation Process Architectural Design Defines relationships between major structural elements and employs architectural…

Interface Design Describes communication between the software and external systems or…

Component-Level Design Transforms structural elements into procedural descriptions of software compo…

Design Quality and Guidelines

Quality is essential for fostering effective software de…

Importance of Design Quality
Design serves as a foundation for subsequent software engineering activ…

Design quality is assessed through formal reviews and walk…

Quality Assessment
Must implement explicit and implicit requirements and provide a comprehensive view of the…

Architecture should use recognizable styles.

Design Quality Guidelines Components should exhibit good design characteris…

Design should be modular and lead to appropriate data struc…

Quality Attributes (FURPS)

Functionality: Evaluates features and capabili…

Usability: Considers human factors and consis…

Key Attributes Reliability: Measures failure frequency and recovery abil…

Performance: Assesses speed, response time, and resource consump…

Supportability: Combines adaptability, serviceability, and maintainabil…

Software Design Principles

Software design principles help manage complexity effec…

Problem Partitioning Divides significant problems into manageable pieces for easier understanding and mainte…

Enables designers to focus on components without internal implementation…

Managing Complexity
Specifies modules by their functions without
Abstraction Functional Abstraction revealing algorithm details.

Data Abstraction Hides details of data elements from…

Modularity Divides software into separate modules for easier management and implemen…

Enhances separation of concerns and improves quality factors like portability and scala…
Characteristics of a Modular System
Modules can be reused and independently devel…

Coupling and Cohesion

Measures the interdependence between mod…

Message Coupling: Lowest (best).

Coupling Data Coupling: Data passed as parame…

Stamp Coupling: Complex data structures…

Types of Coupling Control Coupling: Control information passed between mod…

External Coupling: Shared data formats or proto…

Common Coupling: Shared global vari…

Content Coupling: Highest (worst).

Measures the functional relatedness of elements within a mod…

Functional Cohesion: Strongest…

Cohesion Sequential Cohesion: Output from one element is input for anoth…

Communicational Cohesion: All elements operate on the same…

Levels of Cohesion Procedural Cohesion: Elements executed in a specific or…

Temporal Cohesion: Functions executed in relation to…

Logical Cohesion: Logically related elements…

Coincidental Cohesion: Weakest…

Design Strategies

Top-Down Approach Starts with high-level specifications and decomposes into detailed subsys…

Bottom-Up Approach Begins with detailed subsystems and integrates them into a complete…

Design Concepts

Fundamental Concepts Abstraction, Architecture, Patterns, Modularity, Information Hiding, Functional Independence, Refinement, Refactoring, Design…

Design Classes User interface classes, Business domain classes, Process classes, Persistent classes, System…

The Design Model

Elements of the Design Model Data/class design, Architectural design, Interface design, Component-level design, Deployment-level…

Architectural Styles and Patterns Data-centered architecture, Data-flow architecture, Call and return architecture, Object-oriented architecture, Layered architec…

User Interface Guidelines

Visibility of system status.

Match between system and the real wor…

User control and freedom.

Consistency and standards.

Error prevention.
Key Guidelines
Recognition rather than recall.

Flexibility and efficiency of use.

Aesthetic and minimalist de…

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from er…

Help and documentation.