Software Engineering

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CHAPTER 3 
Software Architecture
3.8 
Motivation for the software architecture
Software development has a tarnished history of project and product failures and 
has earned a reputation as an undisciplined, naïve craft. While there have been 
many offenders, the numerous attempts to improve the state of practice have failed 
to make any significant advancement in software development efficiency, effective-
ness, or product quality. The failure of past attempts can be attributed to the fail-
ure to devise a vigilant design paradigm that addresses the product requirements, 
functional and performance characteristics, and assembly and integration structural 
considerations. The software architecture, as addressed in this material, is intended 
to fulfill this software design liability.
The software architecture involves a number of elements or subarchitectures to 
be consistent with the integrated product and process development (IPPD) philoso-
phy. The following list identifies the various subarchitectural elements found within 
the software architecture. Note that for each lowest-level subarchitecture there are 
three subelements: (1) requirements baseline, (2) functional architecture, and (3) 
physical architecture.
Software Architecture
●
  Product requirements baseline
●
  Product functional architecture
●
  Product physical architecture
Software Post-development Process Architecture
Product Distribution Process Architecture
●
  Distribution process requirements baseline
●
  Distribution process functional architecture
●
  Distribution process physical architecture
Product Training Process Architecture
●
  Training process requirements baseline
●
  Training process functional architecture
●
  Training process physical architecture
Product Sustainment Process Architecture
Customer Support Process Architecture
●
  Customer support process requirements baseline
●
  Customer support process functional architecture
●
  Customer support process physical architecture
Problem Resolution Process Architecture
●
  Problem resolution process requirements baseline
●
  Problem resolution process functional architecture
●
  Problem resolution process physical architecture
Product Enhancement Process Architecture
●
  Product enhancement process requirements baseline
●
  Product enhancement process functional architecture
●
  Product enhancement process physical architecture

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