Software architecture is the set of structures needed to reason about a software system and the discipline of creating such structures and systems. Each structure comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both elements and relations.
87-506: The architecture of a software system is a metaphor , analogous to the architecture of a building. It functions as the blueprints for the system and the development project, which project management can later use to extrapolate the tasks necessary to be executed by the teams and people involved. Software architecture is about making fundamental structural choices that are costly to change once implemented. Software architecture choices include specific structural options from possibilities in
174-436: A "conduit metaphor." According to this view, a speaker can put ideas or objects into containers and then send them along a conduit to a listener, who removes the object from the container to make meaning of it. Thus, communication is conceptualized as something that ideas flow into, with the container being separate from the ideas themselves. Lakoff and Johnson provide several examples of daily metaphors in use, including "argument
261-523: A 1967 paper by computer programmer Melvin Conway that organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations. Fred Brooks introduced it to a wider audience when he cited the paper and the idea in The Mythical Man-Month , calling it Conway's Law . Software architecture is an "intellectually graspable" abstraction of
348-481: A characteristic of speech and writing, metaphors can serve the poetic imagination. This allows Sylvia Plath , in her poem "Cut", to compare the blood issuing from her cut thumb to the running of a million soldiers, " redcoats , every one"; and enabling Robert Frost , in "The Road Not Taken", to compare a life to a journey. Metaphors can be implied and extended throughout pieces of literature. Sonja K. Foss characterizes metaphors as "nonliteral comparisons in which
435-437: A common-type metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile . The metaphor category contains these specialized types: It is said that a metaphor is 'a condensed analogy' or 'analogical fusion' or that they 'operate in a similar fashion' or are 'based on the same mental process' or yet that 'the basic processes of analogy are at work in metaphor'. It is also pointed out that 'a border between metaphor and analogy
522-415: A comparison that shows how two things, which are not alike in most ways, are similar in another important way. In this context, metaphors contribute to the creation of multiple meanings within polysemic complexes across different languages. Furthermore, Lakoff and Johnson explain that a metaphor is essentially the understanding and experiencing of one kind of thing in terms of another, which they refer to as
609-423: A complex system. This abstraction provides a number of benefits: The comparison between software design and (civil) architecture was first drawn in the late 1960s, but the term "software architecture" did not see widespread usage until the 1990s. The field of computer science had encountered problems associated with complexity since its formation. Earlier problems of complexity were solved by developers by choosing
696-445: A metaphor as having two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed. In the previous example, "the world" is compared to a stage, describing it with the attributes of "the stage"; "the world" is the tenor, and "a stage" is the vehicle; "men and women" is the secondary tenor, and "players" is the secondary vehicle. Other writers employ
783-454: A metaphor because the world is not literally a stage, and most humans are not literally actors and actresses playing roles. By asserting that the world is a stage, Shakespeare uses points of comparison between the world and a stage to convey an understanding about the mechanics of the world and the behavior of the people within it. In the ancient Hebrew psalms (around 1000 B.C.), one finds vivid and poetic examples of metaphor such as, "The Lord
870-414: A metaphor for understanding. The audience does not need to visualize the action; dead metaphors normally go unnoticed. Some distinguish between a dead metaphor and a cliché . Others use "dead metaphor" to denote both. A mixed metaphor is a metaphor that leaps from one identification to a second inconsistent with the first, e.g.: I smell a rat [...] but I'll nip him in the bud" This form is often used as
957-447: A metaphor is defined as a semantic change based on a similarity in form or function between the original concept and the target concept named by a word. For example, mouse : "small, gray rodent with a long tail" → "small, gray computer device with a long cord". Some recent linguistic theories hold that language evolved from the capability of the brain to create metaphors that link actions and sensations to sounds. Aristotle discusses
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#17328588517051044-465: A metaphorically related area. Cognitive linguists emphasize that metaphors serve to facilitate the understanding of one conceptual domain—typically an abstraction such as "life", "theories" or "ideas"—through expressions that relate to another, more familiar conceptual domain—typically more concrete, such as "journey", "buildings" or "food". For example: one devours a book of raw facts, tries to digest them, stews over them, lets them simmer on
1131-482: A metonymy relies on pre-existent links within such domains. For example, in the phrase "lands belonging to the crown", the word crown is a metonymy because some monarchs do indeed wear a crown, physically. In other words, there is a pre-existent link between crown and monarchy . On the other hand, when Ghil'ad Zuckermann argues that the Israeli language is a "phoenicuckoo cross with some magpie characteristics", he
1218-404: A parody of metaphor itself: If we can hit that bull's-eye then the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate . An extended metaphor, or conceit, sets up a principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or comparisons. In the above quote from As You Like It , the world is first described as a stage and then the subsidiary subjects men and women are further described in
1305-423: A prominent role in furthering software architecture as a discipline. Mary Shaw and David Garlan of Carnegie Mellon wrote a book titled Software Architecture: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline in 1996, which promoted software architecture concepts such as components , connectors, and styles. The University of California, Irvine 's Institute for Software Research's efforts in software architecture research
1392-594: A set of box-and-line diagrams . Software architecture as a concept has its origins in the research of Edsger Dijkstra in 1968 and David Parnas in the early 1970s. These scientists emphasized that the structure of a software system matters and getting the structure right is critical. During the 1990s there was a concerted effort to define and codify fundamental aspects of the discipline, with research work concentrating on architectural styles ( patterns ), architecture description languages , architecture documentation , and formal methods . Research institutions have played
1479-460: A sociological, cultural, or philosophical perspective, one asks to what extent ideologies maintain and impose conceptual patterns of thought by introducing, supporting, and adapting fundamental patterns of thinking metaphorically. The question is to what extent the ideology fashion and refashion the idea of the nation as a container with borders, and how enemies and outsiders are represented. Some cognitive scholars have attempted to take on board
1566-467: A software architect to carry out analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and evolution. For instance, an architect has to gather knowledge, make decisions, and document during the analysis phase. Software architecture description involves the principles and practices of modeling and representing architectures, using mechanisms such as architecture description languages, architecture viewpoints, and architecture frameworks. An architecture description language (ADL)
1653-424: A software system's architecture, called architecturally significant requirements. Architectural synthesis or design is the process of creating an architecture. Given the architecturally significant requirements determined by the analysis, the current state of the design and the results of any evaluation activities, the design is created and improved. Architecture evaluation is the process of determining how well
1740-503: A statement about software design is non-local (architectural) if and only if a program that satisfies it can be expanded into a program that does not. For example, the client–server style is architectural (strategic) because a program that is built on this principle can be expanded into a program that is not client–server—for example, by adding peer-to-peer nodes. Requirements engineering and software architecture can be seen as complementary approaches: while software architecture targets
1827-472: A tornado. Based on his analysis, Jaynes claims that metaphors not only enhance description, but "increase enormously our powers of perception...and our understanding of [the world], and literally create new objects". Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes . A metaphor asserts the objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, while a simile merely asserts a similarity through use of words such as like or as . For this reason
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#17328588517051914-653: A word or phrase from one domain of experience is applied to another domain". She argues that since reality is mediated by the language we use to describe it, the metaphors we use shape the world and our interactions to it. The term metaphor is used to describe more basic or general aspects of experience and cognition: Some theorists have suggested that metaphors are not merely stylistic, but are also cognitively important.In Metaphors We Live By , George Lakoff and Mark Johnson argue that metaphors are pervasive in everyday life, not only in language but also in thought and action. A common definition of metaphor can be described as
2001-519: Is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to create a likeness or an analogy. Analysts group metaphors with other types of figurative language, such as antithesis , hyperbole , metonymy , and simile . “Figurative language examples include “similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, allusions, and idioms.”” One of
2088-415: Is an open question whether synesthesia experiences are a sensory version of metaphor, the "source" domain being the presented stimulus, such as a musical tone, and the target domain, being the experience in another modality, such as color. Art theorist Robert Vischer argued that when we look at a painting, we "feel ourselves into it" by imagining our body in the posture of a nonhuman or inanimate object in
2175-459: Is any coherent organization of experience. For example, we have coherently organized knowledge about journeys that we rely on in understanding life. Lakoff and Johnson greatly contributed to establishing the importance of conceptual metaphor as a framework for thinking in language, leading scholars to investigate the original ways in which writers used novel metaphors and question the fundamental frameworks of thinking in conceptual metaphors. From
2262-589: Is any means of expression used to describe a software architecture ( ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 ). Many special-purpose ADLs have been developed since the 1990s, including AADL (SAE standard), Wright (developed by Carnegie Mellon), Acme (developed by Carnegie Mellon), xADL (developed by UCI), Darwin (developed by Imperial College London ), DAOP-ADL (developed by University of Málaga), SBC-ADL (developed by National Sun Yat-Sen University ), and ByADL (University of L'Aquila, Italy). Software architecture descriptions are commonly organized into views , which are analogous to
2349-406: Is commonly juxtaposed with software application design . Whilst application design focuses on the design of the processes and data supporting the required functionality (the services offered by the system), software architecture design focuses on designing the infrastructure within which application functionality can be realized and executed such that the functionality is provided in a way which meets
2436-508: Is concerned with adding new functionality as well as maintaining existing functionality and system behavior. Architecture requires critical supporting activities. These supporting activities take place throughout the core software architecture process. They include knowledge management and communication, design reasoning and decision-making, and documentation. Software architecture supporting activities are carried out during core software architecture activities. These supporting activities assist
2523-604: Is directed primarily in architectural styles, architecture description languages, and dynamic architectures. IEEE 1471 -2000, "Recommended Practice for Architecture Description of Software-Intensive Systems", was the first formal standard in the area of software architecture. It was adopted in 2007 by ISO as ISO/IEC 42010:2007 . In November 2011, IEEE 1471–2000 was superseded by ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011 , "Systems and software engineering – Architecture description" (jointly published by IEEE and ISO). While in IEEE 1471 , software architecture
2610-500: Is fuzzy' and 'the difference between them might be described (metaphorically) as the distance between things being compared'. Metaphor is distinct from metonymy , as the two concepts embody different fundamental modes of thought . Metaphor works by bringing together concepts from different conceptual domains, whereas metonymy uses one element from a given domain to refer to another closely related element. A metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas
2697-407: Is its own egg. Furthermore, the metaphor magpie is employed because, according to Zuckermann, hybridic Israeli displays the characteristics of a magpie, "stealing" from languages such as Arabic and English . A dead metaphor is a metaphor in which the sense of a transferred image has become absent. The phrases "to grasp a concept" and "to gather what you've understood" use physical action as
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2784-399: Is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold" and "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want". Some recent linguistic theories view all language in essence as metaphorical. The etymology of a word may uncover a metaphorical usage which has since become obscured with persistent use - such as for example
2871-483: Is no sharp distinction between software architecture versus design and requirements engineering (see Related fields below). They are all part of a "chain of intentionality" from high-level intentions to low-level details. Software architecture exhibits the following: Multitude of stakeholders: software systems have to cater to a variety of stakeholders such as business managers, owners, users, and operators. These stakeholders all have their own concerns with respect to
2958-404: Is powerfully destructive' through the paraphrand of physical and emotional destruction; another person might understand the metaphor as 'Pat can spin out of control'. In the latter case, the paraphier of 'spinning motion' has become the paraphrand 'psychological spin', suggesting an entirely new metaphor for emotional unpredictability, a possibly apt description for a human being hardly applicable to
3045-550: Is that the architecture of a software system is more closely related to its quality attributes such as fault-tolerance , backward compatibility , extensibility , reliability , maintainability , availability , security, usability, and other such – ilities . Stakeholder concerns often translate into requirements on these quality attributes, which are variously called non-functional requirements , extra-functional requirements, behavioral requirements, or quality attribute requirements. Recurring styles: like building architecture,
3132-829: Is the failure of Mozilla Web browser. Mozilla is an application created by Netscape with a complex codebase that became harder to maintain due to continuous changes. Due to initial poor design and growing architecture erosion, Netscape spent two years redeveloping the Mozilla Web browser, showing how important it is to manage architecture erosion to avoid extensive repair efforts, time and cost losses. Architecture erosion can decrease software performance, substantially increase evolutionary costs, and degrade software quality. Various approaches and tools have been proposed to detect architecture erosion. These approaches are primarily classified into four categories: consistency-based, evolution-based, and defect-based, and decision-based approach. Besides,
3219-405: Is using metaphor . There is no physical link between a language and a bird. The reason the metaphors phoenix and cuckoo are used is that on the one hand hybridic Israeli is based on Hebrew , which, like a phoenix, rises from the ashes; and on the other hand, hybridic Israeli is based on Yiddish , which like a cuckoo, lays its egg in the nest of another bird, tricking it to believe that it
3306-419: Is usually implemented in terms of one or more viewpoints or ADLs. An architectural pattern is a general, reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software architecture within a given context. Architectural patterns are often documented as software design patterns . Following traditional building architecture, a 'software architectural style' is a specific method of construction, characterized by
3393-426: Is war" and "time is money." These metaphors are widely used in various contexts to describe personal meaning. In addition, the authors suggest that communication can be viewed as a machine: "Communication is not what one does with the machine, but is the machine itself." Moreover, experimental evidence shows that "priming" people with material from one area can influence how they perform tasks and interpret language in
3480-409: The ' solution space ' or the 'how', requirements engineering addresses the ' problem space ' or the 'what'. Requirements engineering entails the elicitation , negotiation , specification , validation , documentation , and management of requirements . Both requirements engineering and software architecture revolve around stakeholder concerns, needs, and wishes. Metaphor A metaphor
3567-550: The Brain", takes on board the dual problem of conceptual metaphor as a framework implicit in the language as a system and the way individuals and ideologies negotiate conceptual metaphors. Neural biological research suggests some metaphors are innate, as demonstrated by reduced metaphorical understanding in psychopathy. James W. Underhill, in Creating Worldviews: Ideology, Metaphor & Language (Edinburgh UP), considers
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3654-471: The English word " window ", etymologically equivalent to "wind eye". The word metaphor itself is a metaphor, coming from a Greek term meaning 'transference (of ownership)'. The user of a metaphor alters the reference of the word, "carrying" it from one semantic "realm" to another. The new meaning of the word might derive from an analogy between the two semantic realms, but also from other reasons such as
3741-602: The Non-Moral Sense . Some sociologists have found his essay useful for thinking about metaphors used in society and for reflecting on their own use of metaphor. Sociologists of religion note the importance of metaphor in religious worldviews, and that it is impossible to think sociologically about religion without metaphor. Archived 19 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine Requirements Too Many Requests If you report this error to
3828-560: The architect is the one who draws the line between software architecture (architectural design) and detailed design (non-architectural design). There are no rules or guidelines that fit all cases, although there have been attempts to formalize the distinction. According to the Intension/Locality Hypothesis , the distinction between architectural and detailed design is defined by the Locality Criterion , according to which
3915-412: The architectural design and more. It's software architect's responsibility to match architectural characteristics (aka non-functional requirements ) with business requirements. For example: There are four core activities in software architecture design. These core architecture activities are performed iteratively and at different stages of the initial software development life-cycle, as well as over
4002-408: The architecture from separate points of view associated with the various stakeholder concerns. These separate descriptions are called architectural views (see for example the 4+1 architectural view model ). Quality-driven: classic software design approaches (e.g. Jackson Structured Programming ) were driven by required functionality and the flow of data through the system, but the current insight
4089-408: The architecture just enough. Note that synchronous communication between architectural components, entangles them and they must share the same architectural characteristics. Documenting software architecture facilitates communication between stakeholders , captures early decisions about the high-level design, and allows the reuse of design components between projects. Software architecture design
4176-433: The back-burner , regurgitates them in discussions, and cooks up explanations, hoping they do not seem half-baked . A convenient short-hand way of capturing this view of metaphor is the following: Conceptual Domain (A) is Conceptual Domain (B), which is what is called a conceptual metaphor . A conceptual metaphor consists of two conceptual domains, in which one domain is understood in terms of another. A conceptual domain
4263-426: The concerns framed (i.e., to be addressed) but the presentation, model kinds used, conventions used and any consistency (correspondence) rules to keep a view consistent with other views. An architecture framework captures the "conventions, principles and practices for the description of architectures established within a specific domain of application and/or community of stakeholders" ( ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 ). A framework
4350-425: The context of any language system which claims to embody richness and depth of understanding. In addition, he clarifies the limitations associated with a literal interpretation of the mechanistic Cartesian and Newtonian depictions of the universe as little more than a "machine" – a concept which continues to underlie much of the scientific materialism which prevails in the modern Western world. He argues further that
4437-587: The course of creating fictions through the use of metaphor we can also perceive and manipulate props into new improvised representations of something entirely different in a game of "make-believe". Suddenly the properties of the props themselves take on primary importance. In the process the participants in the game may be only partially conscious of the "prop oriented" nature of the game itself. Metaphors can map experience between two nonlinguistic realms. Musicologist Leonard B. Meyer demonstrated how purely rhythmic and harmonic events can express human emotions. It
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#17328588517054524-427: The creation of metaphors at the end of his Poetics : "But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars." Baroque literary theorist Emanuele Tesauro defines the metaphor "the most witty and acute, the most strange and marvelous,
4611-501: The current design or a portion of it satisfies the requirements derived during analysis. An evaluation can occur whenever an architect is considering a design decision, it can occur after some portion of the design has been completed, it can occur after the final design has been completed or it can occur after the system has been constructed. Some of the available software architecture evaluation techniques include Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) and TARA. Frameworks for comparing
4698-404: The design of the software . There are two fundamental laws in software architecture: "Architectural Kata" is a teamwork which can be used to produce an architectural solution that fits the needs. Each team extracts and prioritizes architectural characteristics (aka non functional requirements ) then models the components accordingly. The team can use C4 Model which is a flexible method to model
4785-440: The development of various imaginative ends. In "content oriented" games, users derive value from such props as a result of the intrinsic fictional content which they help to create through their participation in the game. As familiar examples of such content oriented games, Walton points to putting on a play of Hamlet or "playing cops and robbers". Walton further argues, however, that not all games conform to this characteristic. In
4872-450: The different types of blueprints made in building architecture . Each view addresses a set of system concerns, following the conventions of its viewpoint , where a viewpoint is a specification that describes the notations, modeling, and analysis techniques to use in a view that expresses the architecture in question from the perspective of a given set of stakeholders and their concerns ( ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 ). The viewpoint specifies not only
4959-661: The distortion of the semantic realm - for example in sarcasm. The English word metaphor derives from the 16th-century Old French word métaphore , which comes from the Latin metaphora , 'carrying over', and in turn from the Greek μεταφορά ( metaphorá ), 'transference (of ownership)', from μεταφέρω ( metapherō ), 'to carry over, to transfer' and that from μετά ( meta ), 'behind, along with, across' + φέρω ( pherō ), 'to bear, to carry'. The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936) by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes
5046-404: The evolution of a system. Architectural analysis is the process of understanding the environment in which a proposed system will operate and determining the requirements for the system. The input or requirements to the analysis activity can come from any number of stakeholders and include items such as: The outputs of the analysis activity are those requirements that have a measurable impact on
5133-399: The face of obsolete or out-of-date documentation and architecture erosion : implementation and maintenance decisions diverging from the envisioned architecture. Practices exist to recover software architecture as static program analysis . This is a part of the subjects covered by the software intelligence practice. Architecture is design but not all design is architectural. In practice,
5220-550: The features that make it notable" ( architectural style ). An architectural style defines: a family of systems in terms of a pattern of structural organization; a vocabulary of components and connectors, with constraints on how they can be combined. Architectural styles are reusable 'packages' of design decisions and constraints that are applied to an architecture to induce chosen desirable qualities. There are many recognized architectural patterns and styles, among them: Some treat architectural patterns and architectural styles as
5307-432: The formulation of metaphors at the center of a "Game of Make Believe," which is regulated by tacit norms and rules. These "principles of generation" serve to determine several aspects of the game which include: what is considered to be fictional or imaginary, as well as the fixed function which is assumed by both objects and people who interact in the game. Walton refers to such generators as "props" which can serve as means to
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#17328588517055394-403: The general terms ground and figure to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the terms target and source , respectively. Psychologist Julian Jaynes coined the terms metaphrand and metaphier , plus two new concepts, paraphrand and paraphier . Metaphrand is equivalent to the metaphor-theory terms tenor , target , and ground . Metaphier is equivalent to
5481-436: The genus, since both old age and stubble are [species of the genus of] things that have lost their bloom." Metaphors, according to Aristotle, have "qualities of the exotic and the fascinating; but at the same time we recognize that strangers do not have the same rights as our fellow citizens". Educational psychologist Andrew Ortony gives more explicit detail: "Metaphors are necessary as a communicative device because they allow
5568-528: The idea that different languages have evolved radically different concepts and conceptual metaphors, while others hold to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis . German philologist Wilhelm von Humboldt contributed significantly to this debate on the relationship between culture, language, and linguistic communities. Humboldt remains, however, relatively unknown in English-speaking nations. Andrew Goatly , in "Washing
5655-414: The idea that the architecture of a software system represents an overall vision of what it should do and how it should do it. This vision should be separated from its implementation. The architect assumes the role of "keeper of the vision", making sure that additions to the system are in line with the architecture, hence preserving conceptual integrity . Cognitive constraints: An observation first made in
5742-428: The measures used to address architecture erosion contains two main types: preventative and remedial measures. Software architecture recovery (or reconstruction, or reverse engineering ) includes the methods, techniques, and processes to uncover a software system's architecture from available information, including its implementation and documentation. Architecture recovery is often necessary to make informed decisions in
5829-407: The metaphor-theory terms vehicle , figure , and source . In a simple metaphor, an obvious attribute of the metaphier exactly characterizes the metaphrand (e.g. "the ship plowed the seas"). With an inexact metaphor, however, a metaphier might have associated attributes or nuances – its paraphiers – that enrich the metaphor because they "project back" to the metaphrand, potentially creating new ideas –
5916-438: The most commonly cited examples of a metaphor in English literature comes from the " All the world's a stage " monologue from As You Like It : All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances And one man in his time plays many parts, His Acts being seven ages. At first, the infant... — William Shakespeare , As You Like It , 2/7 This quotation expresses
6003-479: The most pleasant and useful, the most eloquent and fecund part of the human intellect ". There is, he suggests, something divine in metaphor: the world itself is God's poem and metaphor is not just a literary or rhetorical figure but an analytic tool that can penetrate the mysteries of God and His creation. Friedrich Nietzsche makes metaphor the conceptual center of his early theory of society in On Truth and Lies in
6090-477: The painting. For example, the painting The Lonely Tree by Caspar David Friedrich shows a tree with contorted, barren limbs. Looking at the painting, some recipients may imagine their limbs in a similarly contorted and barren shape, evoking a feeling of strain and distress. Nonlinguistic metaphors may be the foundation of our experience of visual and musical art, as well as dance and other art forms. In historical onomasiology or in historical linguistics ,
6177-412: The paraphrands – associated thereafter with the metaphrand or even leading to a new metaphor. For example, in the metaphor "Pat is a tornado", the metaphrand is Pat ; the metaphier is tornado . As metaphier, tornado carries paraphiers such as power, storm and wind, counterclockwise motion, and danger, threat, destruction, etc. The metaphoric meaning of tornado is inexact: one might understand that 'Pat
6264-547: The philosophical concept of "substance" or "substratum" has limited meaning at best and that physicalist theories of the universe depend upon mechanistic metaphors which are drawn from deductive logic in the development of their hypotheses. By interpreting such metaphors literally, Turbayne argues that modern man has unknowingly fallen victim to only one of several metaphorical models of the universe which may be more beneficial in nature. In his book In Other Shoes: Music, Metaphor, Empathy, Existence Kendall Walton also places
6351-409: The relationship between software architecture, enterprise architecture and solution architecture . There are many activities that a software architect performs. A software architect typically works with project managers, discusses architecturally significant requirements with stakeholders, designs a software architecture, evaluates a design, communicates with designers and stakeholders, documents
6438-442: The right data structures , developing algorithms , and by applying the concept of separation of concerns . Although the term "software architecture" is relatively new to the industry, the fundamental principles of the field have been applied sporadically by software engineering pioneers since the mid-1980s. Early attempts to capture and explain software architecture of a system were imprecise and disorganized, often characterized by
6525-419: The same context. An implicit metaphor has no specified tenor, although the vehicle is present. M. H. Abrams offers the following as an example of an implicit metaphor: "That reed was too frail to survive the storm of its sorrows". The reed is the vehicle for the implicit tenor, someone's death, and the storm is the vehicle for the person's sorrows. Metaphor can serve as a device for persuading an audience of
6612-444: The same, some treat styles as specializations of patterns. What they have in common is both patterns and styles are idioms for architects to use, they "provide a common language" or "vocabulary" with which to describe classes of systems. There are also concerns that software architecture leads to too much big design up front , especially among proponents of agile software development . A number of methods have been developed to balance
6699-418: The software architecture discipline has developed standard ways to address recurring concerns. These "standard ways" are called by various names at various levels of abstraction. Common terms for recurring solutions are architectural style, tactic, reference architecture and architectural pattern . Conceptual integrity: a term introduced by Fred Brooks in his 1975 book The Mythical Man-Month to denote
6786-419: The system's non-functional requirements . Software architectures can be categorized into two main types: monolith and distributed architecture , each has its own subcategories. Software architecture tends to become more complex over time. Software architects should use " fitness functions " to continuously keep the architecture in check. Opinions vary as to the scope of software architectures: There
6873-487: The system. Balancing these concerns and demonstrating that they are addressed is part of designing the system. This implies that architecture involves dealing with a broad variety of concerns and stakeholders, and has a multidisciplinary nature. Separation of concerns : the established way for architects to reduce complexity is to separate the concerns that drive the design. Architecture documentation shows that all stakeholder concerns are addressed by modeling and describing
6960-464: The techniques are discussed in frameworks such as SARA Report and Architecture Reviews: Practice and Experience . Architecture evolution is the process of maintaining and adapting an existing software architecture to meet changes in requirements and environment. As software architecture provides a fundamental structure of a software system, its evolution and maintenance would necessarily impact its fundamental structure. As such, architecture evolution
7047-461: The trade-offs of up-front design and agility, including the agile method DSDM which mandates a "Foundations" phase during which "just enough" architectural foundations are laid. IEEE Software devoted a special issue to the interaction between agility and architecture. Software architecture erosion refers to a gradual gap between the intended and implemented architecture of a software system over time. The phenomenon of software architecture erosion
7134-438: The transfer of coherent chunks of characteristics -- perceptual, cognitive, emotional and experiential – from a vehicle which is known to a topic which is less so. In so doing they circumvent the problem of specifying one by one each of the often unnameable and innumerable characteristics; they avoid discretizing the perceived continuity of experience and are thus closer to experience and consequently more vivid and memorable." As
7221-535: The user's argument or thesis, the so-called rhetorical metaphor. Aristotle writes in his work the Rhetoric that metaphors make learning pleasant: "To learn easily is naturally pleasant to all people, and words signify something, so whatever words create knowledge in us are the pleasantest." When discussing Aristotle's Rhetoric , Jan Garret stated "metaphor most brings about learning; for when [Homer] calls old age "stubble", he creates understanding and knowledge through
7308-519: The view that metaphors may also be described as examples of a linguistic "category mistake" which have the potential of leading unsuspecting users into considerable obfuscation of thought within the realm of epistemology. Included among them is the Australian philosopher Colin Murray Turbayne . In his book The Myth of Metaphor , Turbayne argues that the use of metaphor is an essential component within
7395-729: The way individual speech adopts and reinforces certain metaphoric paradigms. This involves a critique of both communist and fascist discourse. Underhill's studies are situated in Czech and German, which allows him to demonstrate the ways individuals are thinking both within and resisting the modes by which ideologies seek to appropriate key concepts such as "the people", "the state", "history", and "struggle". Though metaphors can be considered to be "in" language, Underhill's chapter on French, English and ethnolinguistics demonstrates that language or languages cannot be conceived of in anything other than metaphoric terms. Several other philosophers have embraced
7482-534: Was about the architecture of "software-intensive systems", defined as "any system where software contributes essential influences to the design, construction, deployment, and evolution of the system as a whole", the 2011 edition goes a step further by including the ISO/IEC 15288 and ISO/IEC 12207 definitions of a system, which embrace not only hardware and software, but also "humans, processes, procedures, facilities, materials and naturally occurring entities". This reflects
7569-485: Was initially brought to light in 1992 by Perry and Wolf alongside their definition of software architecture. Software architecture erosion may occur in each stage of the software development life cycle and has varying impacts on the development speed and the cost of maintenance. Software architecture erosion occurs due to various reasons, such as architectural violations , the accumulation of technical debt , and knowledge vaporization . A famous case of architecture erosion
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