Software Engineering

13.1.1 
Establish software architectural design guidelines
The software architectural guidelines must be established to address how the struc-
tural configuration will be devised or constrained to promote an effective, efficient, and 

---

231
13.1
 
Design conceptualization
FIGURE 13.2
The software structural design three-tiered paradigm.

---

232
CHAPTER 13 
Software Design Synthesis Practice
sustainable solution. Software architectural guidelines identify explicit design para-
digms that guide the organization and arrangement of the structural configuration 
and influence design decisions concerning the physical architecture. A design para-
digm consists of a set of complementary rules or principles that collectively define 
an overarching approach to designing the structural solution.
Design guidelines must address how the structural configuration will be fash-
ioned to establish an architectural framework that ensures design integrity. The 
“Assess Architectural Stability” task provides additional material concerning design 
integrity. The following criteria should be considered when identifying architectural 
guidelines:
1. 
Architectural permanence
—the structural guidelines intended to establish an 
architectural framework that will endure product modifications and enhance-
ments throughout its intended life cycle. Permanence infers the unchanging 
structure of the underlying design constructs.
●
 
Configuration robustness
—the design rules or policies intended to ensure 
that structural elements and design mechanisms can be modified, extended, 
or enhanced without fracturing architectural integrity.
●
 
Architectural perseverance
—the design rules or policies intended to ensure 
that structural elements may perform their data processing actions regardless 
of architectural modifications or enhancements.
2. 
Architectural simplicity
—the structural guidelines intended to ensure the 
arrangement and interrelationships among structural elements that complicate 
the ability to comprehend data processing conventions.
●
 
Elemental complexity
—the design rules or policies intended to ensure that 
computational rigor is distributed evenly among contributing structural 
elements.
●
 
Integration density
—the design rules or policies intended to ensure a  
balanced distribution of structural elements among integration tasks.
●
 
Interactional complexity
— the design rules or policies intended to constrain 
the interactions (number of interactive data exchanges or transference of 
control) among the structural elements.
3. 
Operational durability
—the structural guidelines intended to ensure sustained 
data processing operations under stressful and disruptive conditions.
●
 
Operational load resilience
—the design rules or policies intended to ensure 
consistent performance of the architecture under planned and extreme work-
load profiles.
●
 
Operational disruption acclimation
—the design rules or policies intended to 
ensure the architecture to endure external failures associated with elements 
of the computing environment or external systems.
●
 
Computer technology assimilation
—the design rules or policies intended to 
ensure the architecture is resilient to changes in the computing environment 
equipment, systems, or applications.

---