Drexel University

College of Computing and Informatics

INFO 532 – Software Development

Written Assignment 6

Due Date: Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021

Answer the following questions. Your answers must:

1. Be in your own words;
2. Be in full sentences free of grammatical errors;
3. Express substantive thoughts addressing all parts of the question;
4. Be grounded in the topics covered in the course.

Question 1. Describe three different views used in architecture design.

Ans 1. A software architecture can be defined in following ways:

 Unified modelling language (UML) – It is one of the object-oriented solutions used in

software modeling and design

 Architecture Description Language (ADL) – Semantically and formally

defines the software architecture

 Architecture View model (4+1 view model) – Represents the functional and non-
functional requirements of software applications. It provides four essential views:
1. Logical or conceptual view – It describes the object model of the design.
2. The process view – Defines the activities of the system, captures the concurrency
and synchronization aspect of the design.
3. The physical view – It describes the mapping of software onto hardware and
reflect its distributed aspect
4. Development view – Defines the static organization or structure of the software
in its development of environment.

Question 2. What are the two general characteristics of a good design that naturally evolve from
requirements.
Ans 2. The two general characteristics of a good design that naturally evolve from requirements
are:

 Consistency – It ensures that common terminology is used across the system’s process
logic, reports, display screen, database elements and it also ensures the navigational flow
and depth of logic. Consistency refers to a situation where a specification contains no
internal contradiction.

 Completeness – Ensures that all the requirements are designed, and none is left out. It
refers to situations where a specification entails everything that is known to be “true” in a
certain context.

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Question 3. Is there any conflict between strong cohesion and week coupling? Discuss.
Ans 3. Coupling is defined as the degree of interdependence between two or more classes,
components, or modules. Whereas Cohesion is defined as the degree to which all the elements of
a module, class, or component work together as a functional unit. A well- designed program is
one with strong cohesion within modules and weak coupling between modules.

Benefits of strong cohesion and weak coupling are:

1. Modules are easier to read and understand.

2. Modules are easier to modify.
3. Modules are easier to develop and test.
4. There is an increased potential for reuse

A. How to Hand In

 Submit your assignment file and answers through the course website in the Blackboard
system.

B. When to Hand In

 Submit your assignment no later than 11:59pm in the due date.