Software Architecture

David Garlan

Wiley Encyclopedia of Software Engineering, J. Marciniak (Ed.), John Wiley & Sons, 2001.

Online links: Postscript PDF

Abstract

As the size and complexity of software systems increase, the design, specification, and analysis of overall system structure becomes a critical issue. Structural issues include the organization of a system as a composition of components; global control structures, the protocols for communication, synchronization, and data access; the assignment of functionality to design elements; the composition of design elements; physical distribution; scaling and performance, and dimensions of evolution. This is the software architecture level of design.

Keywords

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Last modified: 10/15/2001. For comments and problems, contact able-help@cs.cmu.edu.