Comp 684 Final Exam Review
Be
able to define and discuss the following terms and concepts:
Software
architecture
Architecture
Business Cycle (ABC)
Stakeholders
Architectural
patterns
Reference
models
Reference
architectures
Architectural
structures (views)
Module
Decomposition
Uses
Layered
Class
Component-and-connector
Client-Server
Process
Concurrency
Shared
Data
Allocation
Deployment
Implementation
Work
Assignment
Quality
attributes
Availability
Modifiability
Performance
Security
Testability
Usability
General
quality attribute scenario
Source
of stimulus
Stimulus
Environment
Artifact
Response
Response
measure
Concrete
quality attribute scenario
Business
quality attributes
Time to market
Cost
and benefit
Projected
lifetime of the system
Targeted
market
Rollout
schedule
Integration
with legacy systems
Architecture
quality attributes
Conceptual
integrity
Correctness
and completeness
Buildability
Architectural
tactics
Architectural
strategy
Availability
tactics
Fault
detection
Fault
recovery
Fault
prevention
Modifiability
tactics
Localize
modifications
Prevent
ripple effects
Defer
binding time
Performance
tactics
Resource
demand
Resource
management
Resource
arbitration
Security
tactics
Resisting
attacks
Detecting
attacks
Recovering
from attacks
Testability
tactics
Input/output
Internal
monitoring
Usability
tactics
Runtime
tactics
Design-time
tactics
Architectural
patterns (styles)
Interdependent
components
Communicating
processes
Event
systems
Implicit
invocation
Explicit
invocation
Data
flow
Batch
sequential
Pipes
and filters
Data-Centered
Repository
Blackboard
Virtual
Machine
Interpreter
Rule-based
system
Call/return
Main
program and subroutine
Object-oriented
Layered
The
Design Structure Matrix (DSM)
Design
complexity
Modularity
Attribute-Driven
Design (ADD)
IEEE
1471 Standard (and its elements)
System
Architecture
Environment
Architectural
Description
Stakeholder
Concern
Rationale
Viewpoint
View
Model
Viewpoint
Library
Be
able to explain or describe:
How
architectures are influenced by:
Stakeholders
The
developing organization
The
background and experience of the architects
The
technical environment
How
architectures affect business goals
Architecture
activities
Creating
the business case for the system
Understanding
the requirements
Creating
or selecting the architecture
Communicating
the architecture
Analyzing
or evaluating the architecture
Implementing
based on the architecture
Ensuring
conformance to an architecture
What
makes a good architecture
Why
software architecture is important
How
it helps with stakeholder communication
How
early design decisions affect the software development
What
is its value is as a transferable re-usable model
Why
different architectural views are needed
What
a quality attribute scenario is
What
the six parts of a scenario are
What
the possible values are for each of the six parts for each quality attribute
Possible tactics to
use to address specific quality attributes
The steps in the
ADD process
Choose the module to decompose
Refine the module according to the
following steps
Choose the architectural
drivers
Choose an appropriate
architectural pattern
Instantiate modules and
allocate functionality
Define interfaces of the
child modules
Verify and refine use
cases and quality scenarios
Repeat the above steps for every
module that requires decomposition
How a team
structure is formed based on the architecture’s decomposition
What is meant by
and what is the importance of building a skeletal system
How to build a
Design Structure Matrix
The concepts of
complexity and modularity with respect to architectural design
The concepts of
cohesion and coupling with respect to architectural design
The uses of
architectural documentation
How to choose the
relevant views to document
What to include
when documenting a view
Primary presentation
Element catalog
Context diagram
Variability guide
Architecture background
Glossary of terms
Other information
Sample
Short Answer Questions:
1. Aside
from creating the architecture itself, describe one other architectural
activity.
2. Explain
what is meant by the Architecture
Business Cycle (ABC).
3. Software
architecture is often described as “high-level design”. What is wrong with this definition?
4. Identify
and explain one reason software architecture is important.
5. What
is a process structure (view) useful
for?
6. In
a quality attribute scenario what is meant by the response?
7. For
a performance scenario what would be typical response measures?
8. What
is meant by the business quality attribute of time to market?
9. What
is meant by the architecture quality attribute of conceptual integrity?
10. Identify
a specific tactic to use for fault recovery to achieve high availability in a
system.
11. One
tactic to use when trying to achieve high performance is to manage the resource
demand. Explain one way to do this.
12. What
is meant by an architectural pattern?
13. When
documenting a view, what is meant by the primary
presentation?
14. Identify
one piece of information you might include in the architecture background portion of your documentation of a view.
15. Identify
one important use of architectural documentation.
Sample Essay Questions
1. Why
is it important to have an architect as part of the requirements engineering
team?
2. List
and describe the main activities associated with the job of a software
architect.
3. Software
architectures are influenced by the stakeholders, the development organization,
the background and experience of the architect, and the technical
environment. For each of these
influences, explain specifically how the architecture is affected. Give examples to illustrate your points.
4. It
is claimed that the quality attributes defined for a software product drive the
software architecture of that product (at least, if done correctly). Explain why this is the case. Give examples showing potential problems that
could result from ignoring, or failing to recognize, required quality
attributes.
5. Describe
the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) and explain how creating and utilizing one
can aid in dealing with complexity in the software architecture process. Since modularity can help to manage
complexity, how can a DSM help us to correctly modularize our
architecture?
6. Even
with significant advances in software engineering processes over the past
several years, achieving quality in products today seems to be as big a problem
as it ever was. In your opinion
(especially based on what you have learned in this course), what is the reason
for this? What are the barriers to
achieving quality, and what specific actions would you recommend be taken
within a software development organization to improve the quality of the
software produced?
7. Suppose
you were the architect working on a software engineering project to develop a
medical information processing system.
Assume that the stated goal of this system was to manage the health
records of patients for a large health maintenance organization. Among the identified functions of the system
were capabilities for doctors to access patient history online, especially in
emergency situations, to add new information based on examinations and
laboratory tests, and to allow patients access to their own medical
information. It is also recognized that
this system will potentially need to upload and download information from a
National Health Information Management System in the future. Regarding nonfunctional requirements little
information is currently available. With
regard to security, the preliminary requirements specification only said that
the system should be secure, with regard to performance it stated that the
system should respond quickly in emergency situations, and with regard to
usability it said that the system should be user friendly. As the architect you decide to meet with the
stakeholders of the system to better understand the nonfunctional (quality)
requirements. What questions would you
ask to help in establishing the important quality attributes of the system to
be built? Based on your limited
understanding of this system what architectural style or styles do you think
would be appropriate to apply and why?
8. Suppose
you worked for a software development company that, although they followed a
sound software engineering process, did not really have any individual(s)
designated as architects, nor did they really engage in any activity resembling
architectural design. How would you try
to convince your management that it would advantageous to add architectural
design as a fundamental activity in the development process and to designate
one or more individuals as software architects? That is, development an argument that would
explain the advantages of conducting architectural design and/or the
disadvantages of not doing so, as far as the good of the company was concerned.
9. Explain
how the Attribute-Driven Design process is different from approaching
architecture design using a Design Structure Matrix and give an example to show
how different architectural designs might result for the same problem depending
on which approach is taken.
10. Consider
the case of an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) system. Using the general security scenario shown
below, identify one specific security requirement and develop an appropriate
concrete quality attribute scenario for it. Then identify useful tactics that
you could use to satisfy this requirement.
|
Portion
of Scenario |
Possible
Values |
|
Source |
Individual
or system that is correctly identified, identified incorrectly, of unknown
identity who is internal/external, authorized/not authorized with access to
limited resources, vast resources |
|
Stimulus |
Tries to
display data, change/delete data, access system services, reduce availability
to system services |
|
Artifact |
System
services; data within system |
|
Environment |
Either
online or offline, connected or disconnected, firewalled or open |
|
Response |
Authenticates
user; hides identity of the user; blocks access to data and/or services;
allows access to data and/or services; grants or withdraws permission to
access data and/or services; records access/modifications or attempts to
access/modify data/services by identity; stores data in an unreadable format;
recognizes an unexplainable high
demand for services, and informs a user or another system, and restricts
availability of services |
|
Response
Measure |
Time/effort/resources
required to circumvent security measures with probability of success;
probability of detecting attack; probability of identifying individual
responsible for attack or access/modification of data and/or services;
percentage of services still available under denial-of-services attack;
restore data/services; extent to which data/services damaged and/or
legitimate access denied |