Software Architecture Fundamentals: A Study Guide for the Certified Professional for Software Architecture® - Foundation Level - iSAQB compliant

by Mahbouba Gharbi, Arne Koschel, Andreas Rausch

Overview

Software architecture is an important factor in ensuring the success of any software project. It provides a systematically designed framework that ensures the fulfilment of quality requirements such as expandability, flexibility, performance, and time-to-market. A software architect’s job is to reconcile customer requirements with the available technical options and constraints while designing an overall structure that allows all components of the system to interact smoothly.

This book gives you all the basic know-how you need to begin designing scalable system software architectures. It goes into detail on all the most important terms and concepts and how they relate to other IT practices.

Following on from the basics, it describes the techniques and methods required for the planning, documentation, and quality management of software architectures. It details the role, the tasks, and the work environment of a software architect, as well as looking at how the job itself is embedded in company and project structures. The book also addresses the tools required for the job.

This edition has been updated to conform to the ISO/IEC 25010 and ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 standards. It also puts increased emphasis on domain-driven design, and looks at contemporary architectures such as microservices.

The book is based on the International Software Architecture Qualification Board’s Certified Professional for Software Architecture – Foundation Level (CPSA-F) syllabus, version 4.1.1. (July 2017).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783864906251
Publisher:	Rocky Nook
Publication date:	02/15/2019
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	7.25(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mahbouba Gharbi is managing director and Chief Architect at ITech Progress GmbH, and chairman of the board at the International Software Architecture Qualification Board (iSAQB). She is a self-confessed software architecture enthusiast and the author of many expert articles. She is a welcome guest speaker at numerous international conferences.

Prof. Dr. Arne Koschel is a lecturer at the University of Hanover, specializing in distributed (data) systems. He has many years of industry experience planning and developing data systems. He also lectures on a range of IT topics that includes SOA, integration, middleware, EDA, and cloud computing. He is an active member of the iSAQB board.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Rausch is head of the software systems department at the Technical University of Clausthal. He is a consultant and lead software architect for a number of large-scale distributed software systems.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Software architecture as an aspect of software engineering 2

1.2 iSAQB: The International Software Architecture Qualification Board 4

1.3 Certified Professional for Software Architecture - Foundation and Advanced Level 5

1.4 The aim of this book 7

1.5 Prerequisites 8

1.6 Reader's guide 8

1.7 Target audience 9

1.8 Acknowledgements 10

2 Software Architecture Fundamentals 11

2.1 Integration with the iSAQB curriculum 12

2.2 Software-intensive systems and software architectures 13

2.3 Fundamental software architecture concepts 19

2.4 A bird's-eye view of software architecture design 39

2.5 Test your knowledge 47

3 Designing Software Architectures 51

3.1 Integration with the iSAQB curriculum 52

3.2 Overview of the architecture design process 52

3.3 Design principles and heuristics 59

3.4 Architecture-centric development approaches 65

3.5 Techniques for a good design 72

3.6 Architectural patterns 80

3.7 Design patterns 90

3.8 Test your knowledge 97

4 Description and Communication of Software Architectures 101

4.1 Integration with the iSAQB curriculum 101

4.2 The CoCoME example 102

4.3 Views and templates 105

4.4 Technical/cross-cutting concepts in software architectures 134

4.5 Architecture and implementation 137

4.6 Common document types for software architectures 139

4.7 Best-practice rules for documentation 143

4.8 Examples of alternative architecture frameworks 145

4.9 Test your knowledge 149

5 Software Architectures and Quality 151

5.1 Integration with the iSAQB curriculum 152

5.2 Evaluating software architectures 153

5.3 Prototypes and technical proof of concept 161

5.4 Architecture analysis 163

5.5 Test your knowledge 170

6 Tools for Software Architects 173

6.1 Integration with the iSAQB curriculum 173

6.2 General information 173

6.3 Requirements management tools 175

6.4 Modeling tools 176

6.5 Generation tools 177

6.6 Static code analysis tools 178

6.7 Dynamic analysis tools 179

6.8 Build management tools 180

6.9 Configuration and version management tools 182

6.10 Code management tools 183

6.11 Testing tools 184

6.12 Documentation tools 185

6.13 Test your knowledge 186

Appendix

A Sample Questions 189

A.1 Excerpts from the examination regulations 189

A.2 Sample Questions 191

B List of Abbreviations 193

C Glossary 195

D References 205

Index 211