4+1 Architectural view model
A model is a complete, basic, and simplified description of software architecture which is composed of multiple views from a particular perspective or viewpoint.
A view is a representation of an entire system from the perspective of a related set of concerns. It is used to describe the system from the viewpoint of different stakeholders such as end-users, developers, project managers, and testers.
4+1 Architecture view Model
The 4+1 View Model was designed by Philippe Kruchten to describe the architecture of a software–intensive system based on the use of multiple and concurrent views. It is a multiple view model that addresses different features and concerns of the system. It standardizes the software design documents and makes the design easy to understand by all stakeholders.
It is an architecture verification method for studying and documenting software architecture design and covers all the aspects of software architecture for all stakeholders. It provides below four essential views
- Logical view or Conceptual view : It describes the object model of the design.
- Process view : It describes the activities of the system, captures the concurrency and synchronization aspects of the design.
- Physical view : It describes the mapping of software onto hardware and reflects its distributed aspect.
- Development view : It describes the static organization or structure of the software in its development of environment.
This view model can be extended by adding one more view called scenario view or use case view for end-users or customers of software systems. It is coherent with other four views and are utilized to illustrate the architecture serving as “plus one” view, (4+1) view model.
The following figure describes the software architecture using five concurrent views (4+1) model.
Why is it called 4+1 instead of 5?
The use case view has a special significance as it details the high level requirement of a system while other views details — how those requirements are realized. When all other four views are completed, it’s effectively redundant. However, all other views would not be possible without it.
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