The last three chapters have dealt with analysis of the system. Chapter 5 looked at ways of capturing requirements using context diagrams and use cases. Chapters 6 and 7 presented approaches for identifying and characterizing classes and objects inherent in the problem. Analysis looks at key concepts and structures in the system that are independent of how the solution is implemented. Now we're ready for design. Design specifies a particular solution that is based on the analysis model in a way that optimizes the system. The ROPES process divides design into three categories according to the scope of decisions made: architectural, mechanistic, and detailed. This chapter discusses the first: architectural design. Architectural design identifies the key strategies for the large-scale organization of the system under development. The ROPES process identifies five important views of architecture: subsystem and component, concurrency and resource, distribution, safety and reliability, and deployment. This chapter presents the features available in the UML for architectural design and shows how they can be applied to real-time systems.
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