Component level design is concerned with
2012
Component level design is concerned with
Answer: C. Both flow oriented analysis and class based analysis — Concept. Component-level design is the stage of the design model that follows architectural design. Architecture fixes what the components are and how they…
- A.
Flow oriented analysis
- B.
Class based analysis
- C.
Both flow oriented analysis and class based analysis
- D.
Neither flow oriented analysis nor class based analysis
Attempted by 6 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept. Component-level design is the stage of the design model that follows architectural design. Architecture fixes what the components are and how they are connected; component-level design then fixes what is inside each component — its local data structures, the algorithm of every operation it offers, and the interfaces through which it communicates. Because it refines the software all the way down to the level at which it can be coded, its raw material is whatever element types the requirements-analysis model has already produced.
Application. The analysis model of a conventional software-engineering process supplies two structural kinds of element, and component-level design has a defined translation route for each of them:
Analysis-model element | What component-level design derives from it |
|---|---|
Flow-oriented elements: data flow diagrams, processing narratives, control specifications | Transform mapping and transaction mapping convert the flow into a module hierarchy; each module is then given its internal procedural logic and local data |
Class-based elements: analysis classes with their attributes, operations and collaborations | Analysis classes are elaborated into design classes; each operation receives a concrete algorithm and each attribute a concrete data structure |
Cross-check. Standard software-engineering texts (Pressman, Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, chapter on component-level design) list the component-level design elements as being derived from the flow-oriented part of the analysis model and from the class-based part of it, because a conventional process must be able to design components reached by the traditional structured route as well as components reached by the object-oriented route. Testing each narrower reading against that definition:
Restricting the input to flow-oriented analysis alone would leave every class-based component with no defined path from analysis into design.
Restricting the input to class-based analysis alone would leave the structured, transform-mapped route with no defined path from analysis into design.
Admitting neither would contradict the definition of the activity, since component-level design has no other source of requirements detail to refine.
Result. Component level design is concerned with both flow oriented analysis and class based analysis.