Software Architect's Handbook

Software architecture design

Software architecture design involves making decisions in order to satisfy functional requirements, quality attributes, and constraints. It is a problem-solving process that leads to the creation of an architecture design.

Software architecture design comprises defining the structures that will make up the solution and documenting them. The structures of a software system are made up of elements, and the relationships between the elements. The properties and behaviors of the elements that are publicly exposed, through an interface, should be identified as part of the design. The design allows you to understand how the elements behave and interact with each other. Private implementations of the elements are not ...