Introduction to Software Architecture

Description

The CSS Point

1 Introduction
What is software architecture?
There is no standard, universally-accepted definition of the term, for software architecture is a field in its infancy, although its roots run deep in software engineering. 1.1 What is a Software Architecture
An architecture is  set of significant decisions about the organization of a software system,  selection of the structural elements and their interfaces by which the system is composed,  behavior of the structural elements as specified in the collaborations among those elements,  composition of these structural and behavioral elements into progressively larger subsystems,  architectural style that guides this organization (i.e. these elements and their interfaces, their collaborations, and their composition). In the definition above, we assume that components can make of a component. The intent of this definition is that a software architecture must abstract away some information from the system (otherwise there is no point looking at the architecture, we are simply viewing the entire system) and yet provide enough information to be a basis for analysis, decision making, and hence risk reduction. First, architecture defines components. The architecture embodies information about how the components interact with each other. This means that architecture specifically omits content information about components that does not pertain to their interaction.