Category: Software Architecture

An Example Conceptual Data Model Diagram


In my continuing series of posts on software diagrams, I give you an example conceptual data model diagram.  As you probably know, a logical and physical data model should be created after this and I should be posting those shortly.

The conceptual data model is intended for a large group of stakeholders including the users and customers of the system.  Therefore, it should be in a notation and format that they understand.  That is what I strived to do below.

This is an actual diagram I made for a client (scrubbed of course) that was used to build a $15 million/year system.  It took 40 people about 2 years to build.  The system was intended to give scholarships to medical students in hopes that they would then serve at a underserved medical site after graduation.

Enjoy!  Contact me if you want the original Visio file.

Software Architecture Viewpoints and Perspectives


In Philippe Kruchten’s seminal paper, “Architectural Blueprints—The “4+1” View Model of Software Architecture”, the idea of looking at software architectures from a number of viewpoints is put forth.  This idea is needed because architectures are too complex to fit into one diagram.  The views the Kructhen outlines are:

  • Logical
  • Development
  • Physical
  • Process

He “+1” of his model are scenarios or use cases that illustrate the architecture from a functional view.

Nick Rozanski and Eoin Woods build on that idea in their book, Software Systems Architecture.  They list a number of other viewpoints that can be used to describe a Software Architecture.  They are:

  • The Functional Viewpoint
  • The Information Viewpoint
  • The Concurrency Viewpoint
  • The Development Viewpoint
  • The Deployment Viewpoint
  • The Operational Viewpoint

They also introduce the idea of software architecture perspectives.  These perspectives take on architectural attributes that are found across viewpoints, such as security.  I encourage you to read their book and tailor it to your architecture.  It has helped me tremendously on past projects and I plan to post samples soon.