The Architectural Design of a Computer Based System

Question: Describe about The Architectural Design of A Computer Based System. Answer: Overview There are many definitions and models of design exist. For identifying the architectural or general problem of design it is mandatory of having a proper knowledge about the process of design (Terzidis Vakalo, 1992). Designing process is an iterative process, trial and error it depends on experience and intuition .Often Intuition refers to a base of design theories. When a design process is covering the steps of maturity, designers face problems in several ways. There is always a way to solve the problems, which are arising on the way of designing a system. There are two different types of solution; it can be deterministic or probabilistic. When a manual system is reforming to the computer based system there are many stops designer has to knock before clear that step. Before software designing there should be DFD diagram and process narrative chart. Without having these diagram information a designer cant design the software. DFD diagrams show the relation between the attributes. Her e we are taking an example of banking system to describe the architectural design of a computer based system. Source : self The above diagram is the O level or basic level of DFD of a banking system. From this diagram a view of data flow in banking system is expressed. Any transaction done in banking system is always verified by bank. Source: self Above diagram is the level 1 DFD of a banking system. In this system the banking process has executed little briefly (Sommerville, 2000). Through DFD a process of systems are described thoroughly so that it makes designer go easy for design the system (Zhu, 2005). From above diagram it was shown when user is opening an account registration is must, at the point of cheque deposit account detail and date is very important. When user is withdrawing or depositing cash info detail is needed. At the time of pass book update account pass book detail needed. When user have query user need support system and user is always needed cash as of in bank user came here for transaction related to cash. Source:self In Level 2 DFD the process of account counter with user is described how the user collect token for unique serial number for transaction. After having the token serial number the bank employee provides bank statement to the user. Above is the Process narrative chart of the banking system. Process narrative chart is a type of chart which describes the processes included in the DFD (Oshana Kraeling, 2013). A bank performs transactions of two types i.e. financial transactions and Account Administration. In account administration there are several steps like stop the check payment, Order copy of check, Record checks, and order copy of statements. Similarly in financial transactions the steps are paying bills, order foreign currency; order cashiers check, travellers check and transferring funds. In both these transaction processes verification and confirmation is needed. Without verification and confirmation not any transaction are going out from bank. When customised software is designed it is mandatory that there should be some distinct characteristics present in that software (Bjrner, 2006). Customised mean it is fully dedicated for that particular organisation or department. In case of bank it is mandatory to be special as it is of security reasons. Banks always use their own intranet services for security reasons. Banks software are always have tight security pact. Other than those highly securitised software the transactions are not been verified properly. Software seeks to build a bridge between business requirements and technical requirements by using the use cases, DFD and process narrative charts. If good architecture is developed then the first thing happen wills the risk of business reduces (Gorton, 2011). A good design should be flexible to handle the natural drifts. Architecture should consider the overall effect of design decisions; he must keep in mind some points like: Structure of the system should be exposed without exposing the implementation detail Understand all scenarios before designing Try to fulfil requirements of users Make design efficient in both financial and quality wise Having all these qualities are very important for designing software. When software is designed the testing is very important before implementation. Designer must know the flaws of the design. Without testing the system designer cant have the idea of the flaws. If the flaws are not cured the system will not be the proper one to use. Reference Bjrner, D. (2006). Software engineering. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Gorton, I. (2011). Essential software architecture. Berlin: Springer. Oshana, R. Kraeling, M. (2013). Software engineering for embedded systems. Amsterdam: Newnes. Sommerville, I. (2000). Software engineering. Harlow, England: Addison-Wesley. Terzidis, K., Vakalo, E. (1992). The role of Computers in Architectural Design. In Socio-environmental International Conference of the IAPS In Socio-environmental Metamorphoses (pp. 186-191). Zhu, H. (2005). Software design methodology. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.