Software Architecture- The Overlooked Crux

You might be thinking why I am bringing this topic up? The answer to it could be easily understood after going through this piece till the end.

Overview

When we talk about the term architecture, our mind starts building complex scenarios in our mind, but the actual thing is totally different. Software Architecture is just about organization of a system/application. It is the practice of breaking down the system into simple items, such as components, interaction of components, the environment of the system, describing about parties interacting with the system and to define in one line it is a blueprint for the system describing what a system can and cannot do.

Why it should not be overlooked?

Software architecture is a foundation of a system, mostly ignored by stakeholders and also developers directly jumping right in and starting to code could lead to impact in performance or future maintenance of the system. The greater the size and complexity of a software system, the more you will need a well-thought-out architecture in order to succeed. Some of add on benefits it gives are-

• Quality Assurance: It establishes that the system is validated in terms of quality and satisfies the stakeholder. The quality aspects considered are security, performance, interoperability, etc.
• Cost Estimation: We all know businesses run on dollars are every organization gives the utmost importance to cost involved in software development. By breaking down a large-sized development project into smaller tasks, the project manager will state the cost and effort needed. It will denote the human resources to be allotted to the company for the software development services. The cost estimation and calculation would be easier, and the scope can be understood easily as well.
• Crisp Communication: The software architecture makes the entire process easy to comprehend and communicate with the stakeholders. With a clearly laid-out architecture, not only is the planning process better, but the decision-making process is quicker and more efficient. It helps in understanding several aspects such as the cost, quality and duration of the software development.

Quality attributes of software architecture

While there are lot of points, but there are few quality attributes. They are:

• Usability: Defines the ease with which users can perform a specific task on the system, a good architecture reduces the complexity in the system leading to a better user experience.
• Scalability: Defines the ability of a system to handle the increased load without decreasing the performance. If components capabilities and resources of a system are well-defined than a system comes out strong keeping the performance constant with increasing load.
• Maintainability: Defines the efficiency to which a system can be modified for its improvement or adaption to future changes. A poor architecture can make changes to the software much harder than they need to be. The system if designed in a way that components and interaction between them are documented and are not designed complex then it makes easy for the project manager to maintain the system and eventually for a developer too.

The answer to the initial question- After going through this topic I understood that software architecture is a term that is not meant to get feared from, the first step of software development but with a high importance and why it shouldn't be overlooked. Hope this simple article helped you equally.