ABSTRACT
Architecture is the arrangement of the components and functionalities in such a manner that the product remains stable in spite of outside disturbances. The architecture of a software product needs to be viewed from the standpoint of the physical components and functionality, too. Mainly, the data and the modules form the physical components of tvahe software product. The modules contain the programs, graphic files, HTML pages, bought-out software components, images, flat files, and databases, as well as the intermediate software packages like the framework or the app server. All these need to be arranged in such a way that it will be easy to locate any specific component desired and that they work together efficiently. This can be achieved by arranging the components module-wise or by the file types. While arranging these physical components, security concerns must be considered. While we need to locate the desired component easily, it ought not to be so easy for hackers to locate critical components. Architecture based on functionality needs to focus on business transaction processing, system administration functions, data administration functions, and all other independent functions. These have to be arranged such that the end users of those functions can easily and quickly perform their activities with the least reference to bulky user manuals. All these aspects are discussed in this chapter.
