SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE: WHAT, WHY AND HOW?

Do you know what software architecture is? Have you ever tried to be software architecture? If not, then let’s begin understanding this term in depth because software designing and development are very much popular nowadays and every person related to technical background wants to have knowledge about it. Software application architecture is the process of defining a structured solution meeting all of the technical and operational requirements, while optimizing common quality attributes, which are performance, security, and manageability. It involves a series of decisions based on a wide range of factors, and each of these decisions can have considerable impact on the quality, performance, maintainability, and overall success of the application. Software architecture encompasses the set of significant decisions about the organization of a software system including: • Selection of the structural elements and their interfaces • Behavior of these selected elements • Composition of these structural and behavioral elements • Architectural style Software architecture also involves functionality, usability, resilience, performance, reuse, comprehensibility, economic and technology constraints, tradeoffs and aesthetic concerns.

WHY DISCIPLINE OF SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE IS IMPORTANT? Software are quiet complex and like any other complex structure, software are supposed to be built on a solid foundation, so that the complexity can be handled easily and can be eased for end-users. Modern tools and platforms definitely help you to simplify the task of building applications, but they do not replace the need to design your application carefully, based on your specific scenarios and requirements. Therefore, for that we need to have the efficient architecture for perfect software development.

All software solutions must be designed with consideration for the user, the system, and the business goals. For each of these areas, you should outline key scenarios and identify important quality attributes in order to bring the desired and required outcome in your software designing and development. RISKS EXPOSED BY POOR ARCHITECTURE

In order to make your software designing and development flawless, it is important to focus on the key forces that are shaping architectural decisions today.

Even for faster results, better support and improved adaptability of software design, it is highly essential to know and avoid the risks of poor architecture, which are:

• Instability in your software • Inability to support existing or future business requirements • Difficulty to deploy or manage

KEY PRINCIPLES OF SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE

• User Empowerment- A design that supports user empowerment is flexible, configurable, and focused on the user experience. Design your software application with appropriate levels of user personalization and options in mind. Allow the user to define how they interact with your application instead of dictating to them, but do not overload them with unnecessary options and settings that can lead to confusion. Understand the key scenarios and make them as simple as possible; make it easy to find information and use the application.

• Market Maturity- Take advantage of market maturity by taking advantage of existing platform and technology options. Build on higher level application frameworks where it makes sense, so that you can focus on what is uniquely valuable in your application rather than recreating something that already exists and can be reused. Use patterns that provide rich sources of proven solutions for common problems.

• Flexible Design- Increasingly, flexible designs take advantage of loose coupling to allow reuse and to improve maintainability. Pluggable designs allow you to provide post-deployment extensibility.

• Future Trends- When building your architecture, understand the future trends that might affect your design after deployment. For example, consider trends in rich UI and media, composition models such as mash ups, increasing network bandwidth and availability, increasing use of mobile devices, continued improvement in hardware performance, interest in community and personal publishing models, the rise of cloud-based computing, and remote operation.

Now, you have understood that how important software architecture is for perfect software designing and development, so do not forget these principles and disciplines of designing in order to take your projects in the right direction. www.softbiztech.com

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