4+1 View of Architecture

The creators of UML and Philippe Kruchten, speak of a 4+1view of architecture in terms of:

• a development/component view
• a deployment/physical view
• an implementation/logical view
• a process/concurrency view
• and a scenarios/contextual view (+1) that cuts across the other 4.

Tu and Godfrey speak of a build-time view of software architecture. I've often felt that the 4+1 view could be mapped to an SCM architecture (that included people, process and tools) of:

• product structure+dependencies (e.g. directory+build structure)
• development environment (infra)structure+dependencies (workspaces and repositories, computing resources, ...)
• SCM process structure+dependencies (roles, responsibilities, etc.)
• evolution or change-flow (e.g. project-wide version tree) structure+dependencies
• and project-mgmt structure+dependencies (the +1) that track issues/requests, status, reports, etc. across the other 4

In other words, I am basically mapping the following from RUP:

1. Logical View (class/object hierarchies & relationships)
2. Implementation View (Physical - files and "components")
3. Process View (Concurrency/Scheduling/Synchronization)
4. Deployment View (processors, host/operating platform, runtime environment)
5. ("+1"). Scenarios (Use Cases)

Into the following for SCM "Architecture":

1. Change-Flow/Evolution View (logical view of change requests/tasks and their workflows [e.g. states and transitions], and relationships to change-sets, baselines, releases, variants)
2. Product View (Like the RUP Implementation/Physical View of files/modules, build dependencies/structure and other build/package mgmt concerns)
3. Project View (planning/scheduling and integration/coordinating of efforts and changes - which may occur in parallel)
4. Environment View (the SCM+engineering environment including repositories and databases and the underlying hardware/network resources and their relationships in supporting the SCM functions of identification, control, accounting, and audit+review)
5. ("+1"). Process View (here I mean the overall engineering/software process - that ties everything to a process "actor" and process need/use-case)

-- BradAppleton? - 26 Jan 2003 (revised 29 Nov 2003)

Extracted from GenericSemantics by MarcGirod - 30 Jan 2003

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