Properties of Architectural Design

Garlan and Shaw define a group of properties which should be specified as part of an architectural design:

Structural properties: This aspect of the architectural design representation defines the components of a system example for modules, objects, filters and the   manner in that those components are packaged and interact with one another. Example for, objects are packaged to encapsulate both the processing and data which manipulates the data and to interact via the invocation of techniques.

Extra-functional properties:  This architectural design information should address how the design architecture achieves needs for performance, capacity, security, reliability, adaptability and other system characteristics.

Families of related systems: The architectural design should draw upon repeatable patterns which are mostly encountered in the design of families of similar systems. In essence the design should have the ability to reuse architectural building blocks.

By Given the specification of these properties the architectural design can be represented using one or more of a number of various models. The Structural models represent architecture as an organized group of program parts. Framework models raise the level of design abstraction through attempting to identify repeatable architectural design frameworks patterns which are encountered in same kinds of applications. The Dynamic models address the behavioral aspects of the program architecture indicating how the structure or system configuration may change as a function of external events. The Process models focus on the design of technical process or the business in which the system must accommodate. In the last, functional models can be used to represent the functional hierarchy of a system.

The number of different architectural description languages ADLs has been established to represent the models noted above. While various different ADLs have been proposed the majority give mechanisms for describing system parts and the manner in which they are connected to one another.