Software Design

SW Design

 Software design is an iterative process

through which requirements are translated
into a “blueprint” for constructing the
software.
 Initially, the blueprint depicts a holistic view of
software.
Process of Design Engineering

 During the design process the software

specifications are transformed into design models
 Models describe the details of the data structures,
system architecture, interface, and components.
 Each design product is reviewed for quality before
moving to the next phase of software development.
 At the end of the design process a design model
and specification document is produced.
 This document is composed of the design models
that describe the data, architecture, interfaces and
components.
 Process Specification (PSPEC)
Data Object Description procedural
Entity-
design
Data Flow
Relationship Diagram
Diagram

interface
Data Dictionary
design

architectural
State-Transition
design
Diagram

data
Control Specification (CSPEC)
design

THE ANALYSIS MODEL THE DESIGN MODEL

Design Specification Models
 Data design – created by transforming the analysis information
model (data dictionary and ERD) into data structures required to
implement the software. Part of the data design may occur in
conjunction with the design of software architecture. More
detailed data design occurs as each software component is
designed.
 Architectural design - defines the relationships among the
major structural elements of the software, the “design patterns”
than can be used to achieve the requirements that have been
defined for the system, and the constraints that affect the way in
which the architectural patterns can be applied. It is derived from
the system specification, the analysis model, and the subsystem
interactions defined in the analysis model (DFD).
Design Specification Models

 Interface design - describes how the software

elements communicate with each other, with other
systems, and with human users; the data flow and
control flow diagrams provide much of the
necessary information required.
 Procedural / Component-level design - created by
transforming the structural elements defined by the
software architecture into procedural descriptions of
software components using information obtained
from the process specification (PSPEC), control
specification (CSPEC), and state transition diagram
(STD).
Design - Fundamental Concepts
 Abstraction
 Architecture
 Patterns
 Modularity
 Information hiding
 Functional independence
 Refinement
 Refactoring

7
Abstraction
 Data Abstraction
 Procedural Abstraction
Architecture Design
“The overall structure of the software and the ways in which that
structure provides conceptual integrity for a system.”
Design can be represented as
 Structural Models
 Defines the components of a system (e.g., modules, objects, filters) and
 How the components are packaged and interact with one another.
 Framework Models
 Increase level of abstraction
 Dynamic Models and Process Models
 Predicts behavioral and reliability aspects
 Functional Models
 Depicts functional Hierarchy.
Patterns
 a pattern is “a common solution to a common
problem in a given context.” While architectural
styles can be viewed as patterns describing the
high-level organization of software (their
macroarchitecture), other design patterns can be
used to describe details at a lower, more local level
(their microarchitecture).
 Creational patterns (example: builder, factory,
prototype, and singleton)
 Structural patterns (example: adapter, bridge,
composite, decorator, façade, flyweight, and proxy)
 Behavioral patterns (example: command,
interpreter, iterator, mediator, memento, observer,
state, strategy, template, visitor)
Design Pattern

 Design Pattern enables a designer to

determine whether the pattern :
 is applicable to the current work
 can be reused
 can serve as a guide for developing a similar, but
functionally or structurally different pattern.
Modular Design

 Easier to change
 Easier to build
 Easier to maintain
Sizing Modules: Two Views
What's How big
inside?? is it??

MODULE
Information Hiding

 Principle of information hiding says that a good split

of modules is when modules communicate with one
another with only the information necessary to
achieve the s/w function.
 So information hiding enforces access constraints to
both
 procedural detail with a module, and
 local data structure used by that module.
 Data hiding is a CRITERION for modular design.
 How to know what modules to create.
Information Hiding

module • algorithm
controlled
interface • data structure
• details of external interface
• resource allocation policy

clients "secret"

a specific design decision

Information Hiding (Benefits)
 reduces the likelihood of “side effects”
 limits the global impact of local design decisions
 emphasizes communication through controlled
interfaces
 discourages the use of global data
 leads to encapsulation—an attribute of high
quality design
 results in higher quality software

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Functional Independence

COHESION - the degree to which a

module performs one and only one
function.

COUPLING - the degree to which a

module is "connected" to other
modules in the system.

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Cohesion

 Internal glue with which component is constructed

 All elements of component are directed toward and
essential for performing the same task
Range of Cohesion

High Cohesion
Functional

Sequential

Communicational

Procedural

Temporal

Logical

Coincidental Low
Examples of Cohesion-1

Function A Function A Time t0

Function Function
logic Function A’ Time t0 + X
B C
Function Function Time t0 + 2X
D E Function A’’

Coincidental Logical Temporal

Parts unrelated Similar functions Related by time

Function A

Function B

Function C

Procedural
Related by order of functions
Examples of Cohesion-2

Function A
Function A
Function B
Function B
Function C
Function C
Sequential
Communicational Output of one is input to another
Access same data
Function A part 1

Function A part 2

Function A part 3

Functional
Sequential with complete, related functions
Coupling

 Degree of dependence among components.

No dependencies Loosely coupled-some dependencies

Highly couples-many dependencies

Ways components can be dependent
 References made from one to another
 Component A invokes B
 A depends on B for completion of its function or process
 Amount of data passed from one to another
 Component A passes to B: a parameter, contents of an array, block of
data
 Amount of control one has over the other
 Component passes a control flag to B
 Value of flag tells B the state of some resource or subsystem, process
to invoke, or whether to invoke a process
 Degree of complexity in the interface between components
 Components C and D exchange values before D can complete
execution
Range of Coupling

High Coupling
Content

Common

External

Control
Loose
Stamp

Data

Uncoupled Low
Content Coupling : (worst) When a module
uses/alters data in another module
Common Coupling : 2 modules communicating
via global data
External Coupling :Modules are tied to an
environment external to the software
Control Coupling : 2 modules communicating
with a control flag
Stamp Coupling : Communicating via a
data structure passed as a parameter. The
data structure holds more information than
the recipient needs.
Data Coupling : (best) Communicating
via parameter passing. The parameters
passed are only those that the recipient
needs.
No data coupling : independent modules.
Summary

COHESION COUPLING

The measure of strength The measure of

of the association of interdependence of one
elements within a module module to another
It is the degree to which It describes the
the responsibility of a relationship between
single component form a software components
meaningful unit
It is a property or It is a property of a
characteristic of an collection of modules
individual module
Refinement

 Refinement is a process of elaboration

 It is a top-down design strategy
 A program is developed by successfully refining levels of procedural
details
Stepwise Refinement

Open Door

walk to door;
reach for knob;

open door; repeat until door opens

turn knob clockwise;
walk through; if knob doesn't turn, then
close door. take key out;
find correct key;
insert in lock;
endif
pull/push door
move out of way;
end repeat
Refactoring
 Fowler [FOW99] defines refactoring in the
following manner:
 "Refactoring is the process of changing a software system in
such a way that it does not alter the external behavior of the
code [design] yet improves its internal structure.”
 When software is refactored, the existing
design is examined for
 redundancy
 unused design elements
 inefficient or unnecessary algorithms
 poorly constructed or inappropriate data structures
 or any other design failure that can be corrected to yield a
better design.