User requirements to Architecture design – The University of Salford

A key element of any software development is the architectural design. In the same way the architecture of a building not only defines the look of the finished construction but also the materials, structures and how they all fit together, these things must all be defined for a software framework.  This is especially important for projects such as ImAc where different partners are responsible for the development of each component and major changes can be very costly later in terms of development time.

 

In order to minimize risk the ImAc architecture is being developed in two iterations, each followed by a pilot study to evaluate success and provide an iterative development cycle. Our technical architecture is directly based of the user requirements, which provide an essential checklist of system requirements that we will need to satisfy in order to achieve success. It will also form the basis for our integration and testing strategy. We have adopted the ‘4+1’ methodology [1] for software architecture, which wraps each technical view around a scenario designed to illustrate significant and central functionalities.

Figure 1 – the ImAc adoption of the 4+1 Methodology

 

These scenarios are described using a use-case view in order to highlight significant and central functionality. They also describe the set of cases that have a substantial architectural coverage (that exercise many architectural elements) or that stress or illustrate a specific, delicate point of the architecture. Table 1 shows an overview of the scenarios considered within the ImAc project.

Table 1 – Overview of Scenarios

Production Editors	S1	Production of New Subtitles
	S2	Subtitle Verification and correction
	S3	Production of Audio Description
	S4	Audio Description Verification and Correction
	S5	Production of Sign Language
	S6	Sign Language Verification and Correction
	S7	Object Based Audio Editing
Accessibility Content Manager	S8	Assignment of videos for the accessibility content production
	S9	Getting an Accessibility Content file
	S10	Generating Different audio formats with an audio renderer
Content Packaging and Distribution	S11	Preparation of Contents
	S12	Distribution
Player	S13	Consumption of media Contents

 

The ImAc technical partners are currently preparing to publish the first iteration of the system architecture, providing a blueprint for the technical implementation of the project. This will provide the skeleton for the first project pilots and will be updated after the initial testing phase to reflect changes needed to improve the platform.

 

[1] Kruchten, Philippe (1995, November). Architectural Blueprints — The “4+1” View Model of Software Architecture. IEEE Software 12 (6), pp. 42-50.

By Chris Hughes

Tagged as: design, technical