Design

Software Design
 Design activity begins with a set of requirements,
and maybe an architecture
 Design done before the system is implemented
 Design focuses on module view – i.e. what modules
should be in the system
 Module view may have easy or complex relationship
with the C&C view
 Design of a system is a blue print for implementation
 Often has two levels – high level (modules are
defined), and detailed design (logic specified)
Design…
 Design is a creative activity
 Goal: to create a plan to satisfy requirements
 Perhaps the most critical activity during system
development
 Design determines the major characteristics of a
system
 Has great impact on testing and maintenance
 Design document forms reference for later phases
 Design methodology – systematic approach for
creating a design
Design Concepts

 Design is correct, if it will satisfy all the

requirements and is consistent with
architecture
 Of the correct designs, we want best
design
 We focus on modularity as the main
criteria (besides correctness)
Modularity
 Modular system – in which modules can
be built separately and changes in one have
minimum impact on others
 Modularity supports independence of
models
 Modularity enhances design clarity, eases
implementation
 Reduces cost of testing, debugging and
maintenance
Modularity
 Cannot simply chop a program into
modules to get modularly

 Need some criteria for decomposition

– coupling and cohesion are such
criteria
 Coupling
 Independent modules: if one can function
completely without the presence of other
 Independence between modules is desirable
 Modules can be modified separately
 Can be implemented and tested separately
 Programming cost decreases
 In a system all modules cannot be independent
 Modules must cooperate with each other
 More connections between modules
 More dependent they are
 More knowledge about one module is required to
understand the other module.
 Coupling captures the notion of dependence
Coupling…
 Coupling between modules is the strength
of interconnections between modules
 In general, the more we must know about
module A in order to understand module B
the more closely connected is A to B
 "Highly coupled" modules are joined by
strong interconnection
 "Loosely coupled" modules have weak
interconnections
Coupling…
 Goal: modules as loosely coupled as possible
 Where possible, have independent modules
 Coupling is decided during high level design
 Cannot be reduced during implementation
 Coupling is inter-module concept
 Major factors influencing coupling
 Type of connection between modules
 Complexity of the interface
 Type of information flow between modules
Coupling – Type of connection
 Complexity and obscurity of interfaces increase
coupling
 Minimize the number of interfaces per module
 Coupling is minimized if
 Only defined entry of a module is used by others
 Information is passed exclusively through parameters
 The number of interfaces is minimized
 Coupling increases if
 Internals of a module are directly used
 Shared variables employed for communication
 Indirect and obscure interface are used
Coupling
Shared variable example
Coupling – interface
complexity
 Coupling increases with complexity of
interfaces eg. number and complexity of
parms
 Interfaces are needed to support required
communication
 Often more than needed is used eg. passing
entire record when only a field is needed
 Keep the interface of a module as
simple as possible
Coupling – Type of Info flow
 Coupling depends on type of information flow
 Two kinds of information: data or control.
 Transfer of control information
 Action of module depends on the information
 Makes modules more difficult to understand
 Transfer of data information
 Module can be treated as input-output function
 Lowest coupling: interfaces with only data
communication
 Highest: hybrid interfaces
Data coupling-Example
Control coupling- Example
hybrid coupling
 Coupling - Summary
Coupling Interface Type of Type of
complexity connections communication

Low Simple to module data

obvious by name
High complicated to internal Hybrid
obscure elements
 Cohesion
 Coupling characterized the inter-module bond
 Reduced by minimizing relationship between elts of
different modules
 Another method of achieving this is by maximizing
relationship between elts of same module
 Cohesion considers this relationship
 Interested in determining how closely the
elements of a module are related to each other
 In practice both are used
Cohesion…
 Cohesion of a module represents how tightly
bound are the elements of the module
 Gives a handle about whether the different
elements of a module belong together
 High cohesion is the goal
 Cohesion and coupling are interrelated
 Greater cohesion of modules, lower coupling
between module
 Correlation is not perfect.
Levels of Cohesion
 There are many levels of cohesion.
 Coincidental
 Logical
 Temporal
 Communicational
 Sequential
 Functional
 Coincidental is lowest, functional is highest
 Scale is not linear
 Functional is considered very strong
Coincidental cohesion
 occurs when there is no meaningful
relationship among the elements of a module.
 If a module is created to save duplicate code by
combining some part of code that occurs at many
different places.
Logical cohesion
 if there is some logical relationship
between the elements of a module, and
the elements perform functions that fall
in the same logical class.
 Example: module that performs all the
inputs or all the outputs. if we want to
input or output a particular record.
Temporal cohesion
 the same as logical cohesion, except,
the elements are also related in time
and are executed together.
 Temporal cohesion is higher than logical
cohesion, because the elements are all
executed together.
Procedurally cohesive
 contains elements that belong to a
common procedural unit.
 Example, a loop or a sequence of decision
statements in a module may be combined to form
a separate module.
 often occur when modular structure is
determined from some form of
flowchart.
Communicational cohesion
 has elements that are related by a
reference to the same input or output
data.
 Communicationally cohesive modules
may perform more than one function.
Sequential cohesion
 When the elements are together in a
module because the output of one
forms the input to another.
Functional cohesion
 is the strongest cohesion.
 all the elements of the module are
related to performing a single function.
 modules accomplishing a single goal are
also included.
 Determining Cohesion
 Describe the purpose of a module in a sentence
 Perform the following tests
1. If the sentence has to be a compound sentence,
contains more than one verbs, the module is
probably performing more than one function.
Probably has sequential or communicational
cohesion.
2. If the sentence contains words relating to time,
like "first", "next", "after", "start" etc., the
module probably has sequential or temporal
cohesion.
3. If the predicate of the sentence does not contain a
single specific object following the verb, the module
is probably logically cohesive. Eg "edit all data", while
"edit source data" may have functional cohesion.

4. Words like "initialize", "clean-up" often imply

temporal cohesion.

 Functionally cohesive module can always be

described by a simple statement
Open-closed Principle
 Besides cohesion and coupling, open closed principle
also helps in achieving modularity
 Principle: A module should be open for extension but
closed for modification
 Behavior can be extended to accommodate new
requirements, but existing code is not modified
 I.e. allows addition of code, but not modification of existing
code
 Minimizes risk of having existing functionality stop working
due to changes – a very important consideration while
changing code
 Good for programmers as they like writing new code
 Summary
 Goal of designing is to find the best
possible correct design
 Modularity is the criteria for deciding
quality of the design
 Modularity enhanced by low coupling,
high cohesion, and following open-
closed principle
Function Oriented Design and
Structured Design Methodology
 Program Structure and Structure Charts

 Every program has a structure

 Structure Chart - graphic representation of structure
 SC represents modules and interconnections
 Each module is represented by a box
 If A invokes B, an arrow is drawn from A to B
 Arrows are labeled by data items
 Different types of modules in a SC
 Input, output, transform and coordinate modules
 A module may be a composite
Structure charts…
 SC shows the static structure, not the logic
 Different from flow charts
 Major decisions and loops can be shown
 Structure is decided during design
 Implementation does not change structure
 Structure effects maintainability
 SDM aims to control the structure
SC of a Sort Program
Diff types of modules
Iteration and decision
 STRUCTURED DESIGN METHODOLOGY
 SDM views software as a transformation function that
converts given inputs to desired outputs
 The focus of SD is the transformation function
 Uses functional abstraction
 Goal of SDM: Specify functional modules and
connections
 Low coupling and high cohesion is the objective

Transformation
Input functions Output
 Steps in SD
1. Draw a DFD of the system
2. Identify most abstract inputs and most
abstract outputs
3. First level factoring
4. Factoring of input, output, transform
modules
5. Improving the structure
 1. Data Flow Diagrams
 SD starts with a DFD to capture flow of data
in the proposed system
 DFD is an important representation; provides
a high level view of the system
 Emphasizes the flow of data through the
system
 Ignores procedural aspects
 (Purpose here is different from DFDs used in
requirements analysis, thought notation is the
same)
 Drawing a DFG

 Start with identifying the inputs and outputs

 Work your way from inputs to outputs, or vice versa
 If stuck, reverse direction

 Ask: "What transformations will convert the inputs to

outputs"
 Never try to show control logic.
 If thinking about loops, if-then-else, start again

 Label each arrow carefully

 Make use of * and +, and show sufficient detail
 Ignore minor functions in the start
 For complex systems, make dfg hierarchical
 Never settle for the 1st dfg
Step 2 of SD Methodology
 Generally a system performs a basic function
 Often cannot be performed on inputs directly
 First inputs must be converted into a suitable
form
 Similarly for outputs - the outputs produced
 by main transforms need further processing
 Many transforms needed for processing
inputs and outputs
 Goal of step 2 is to separate such transforms
from the basic transform centers
Step 2…
 Most abstract inputs: data elements in dfg
that are furthest from the actual inputs, but
can still be considered as incoming
 These are logical data items for the
transformation
 May have little similarity with actual inputs.
 Often data items obtained after error
checking, formatting, data validation,
conversion etc.
Step 2…
 Travel from physical inputs towards outputs until
data can no longer be considered incoming
 Go as far as possible, without loosing the incoming
nature
 Similarly for most abstract outputs
 Represents a value judgment, but choice is often
obvious
 Bubbles between mai and mao: central transforms
 These transforms perform the basic transformation
 With mai and mao the central transforms can
concentrate on the transformation
Step 2…
 Problem View: Each system does some i/o
and some processing
 In many systems the i/o processing forms the
large part of the code
 This approach separates the different
functions
 subsystem primarily performing input
 subsystem primarily performing transformations
 subsystem primarily performing output
presentation
Example 1 – counting the no
of different words in a file
Example 2 – ATM
 3. First Level Factoring
 First step towards a structure chart
 Specify a main module
 For each most abstract input data item, specify a
subordinate input module
 The purpose of these input modules is to deliver to
main the mai data items
 For each most abstract output data element, specify
an output module
 For each central transform, specify a subordinate
transform module
 Inputs and outputs of these transform modules are
specified in the DFD
 First level factoring is straight forward
 Main module is a coordinate module
 Some subordinates are responsible for delivering the
logical inputs
 These are passed to transform modules to get them
converted to logical outputs
 Output modules then consume them
 Divided the problem into three separate problems
 Each of the three diff. types of modules can be
designed separately
 These modules are independent
Example 1
Example 2
 4. Factoring Input modules
 The transform that produced the mai data is treated
as the central transform
 Then repeat the process of first level factoring
 Input module being factored becomes the main
module
 A subordinate input module is created for each data
item coming in this new central transform
 A subordinate module is created for the new central
transform
 Generally there will be no output modules
 The new input modules are factored similarly Till the
physical inputs are reached
 Factoring of the output modules is symmetrical
 Subordinates - a transform and output modules
 Usually no input modules
Example 1
 Factoring Central Transforms
 Factoring i/o modules is straight forward if the DFD is
detailed
 No rules for factoring the transform modules
 Top-down refinement process can be used
 Goal: determine sub-transforms that will together
compose the transform
 Then repeat the process for newly found transforms
 Treat the transform as a problem in its own right
 Draw a data flow graph
 Then repeat the process of factoring
 Repeat this till atomic modules are reached
Example 1
5. Improving Design through
Heuristics
 The above steps should not be followed blindly
 The structure obtained should be modified if needed
 Low coupling, high cohesion being the goal
 Design heuristics used to modify the initial design
 Design heuristics - A set of thumb rules that are
generally useful
 Module Size: Indication of module complexity
Carefully examine modules less than a few lines or
greater than about 100 lines
 Fan out and fan in
 A high fan out is not desired, should not be increased
beyond 5 or 6
 Fan in should be maximized
 Scope of effect of a module: the modules affected by
a decision inside the module
 Scope of control: All subordinates of the module
 Good thumb rule:
For each module scope of effect should be a subset
of scope of control
 Ideally a decision should only effect immediate
subordinates
 Moving up the decision, moving the module down
can be utilized to achieve this
 Summary
 Structured design methodology is one way to create
modular design
 It partitions the system into input subsystems, output
subsystems & transform subsystems
 Idea: Many systems use a lot of code for handling
inputs & outputs
 SDM separates these concerns
 Then each of the subsystems is factored using the
DFD
 The design is finally documented & verified before
proceeding
Logic/Algorithm Design
 Once the functional module (function or
methods in a class) are specified, the
algo to implement it is designed
 Various techniques possible for
designing algorithm – in algos course
 Stepwise refinements technique is
useful here
Design Verification
 Main objective: does the design
implement the requirements
 Analysis for performance, efficiency, etc
may also be done
 If formal languages used for design
representation, tools can help
 Design reviews remain the most
common approach for verification
Summary
 Design for a system is a plan for a solution –
want correct and modular
 Cohesion and coupling key concepts to
ensure modularity
 Structure charts and structured design
methodology can be used for function-
oriented design
 UML can be used for OO design
 Various complexity metrics exist to evaluate a
design complexity