Software Architectures

Posted on Fri 07 March 2025 in courses

Course Description

This course offers an in-depth study of software architectures, emphasizing their role in creating scalable, maintainable, and high-performing systems. Students will explore various architectural styles, principles of clean architecture, and cutting-edge AI-driven architectural frameworks. By combining theoretical concepts with practical case studies, the course equips students with the skills to design robust architectures tailored to diverse application domains.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, students will: 1. Understand the principles and best practices of modern software architecture.

  1. Explore various architectural patterns, including monolithic, layered, microservices, and event-driven architectures.

  2. Learn and apply clean architecture principles for maintainable and testable systems.

  3. Design AI-driven architectures tailored to intelligent systems and applications.

  4. Evaluate and adapt architectural decisions to meet real-world challenges in scalability, security, and performance.

Syllabus

Week 1-2: Introduction to Software Architecture

  • The role of architecture in software development
  • Core concepts and trade-offs in architectural decisions
  • Overview of architecture evaluation frameworks

Week 3-4: Classical Architectural Styles

  • Monolithic architecture: Advantages and limitations
  • Layered architecture: Principles and practical applications
  • Event-driven architecture: Asynchronous communication and scalability

Week 5-6: Component-Based and Service-Oriented Architectures

  • Component-based design principles
  • Introduction to microservices architecture
  • Best practices for service-oriented systems and RESTful APIs

Week 7-8: Principles of Clean Architecture

  • Introduction to clean architecture principles
  • Designing for testability and maintainability
  • Practical applications and refactoring for clean architecture

Week 9-10: AI-Driven Architectures

  • Architectural patterns for machine learning and AI systems
  • Designing scalable AI pipelines and inference systems
  • Challenges and solutions for deploying AI in production

Week 11-12: Advanced Topics in Software Architecture

  • Architecture for distributed systems and cloud-native applications
  • Security considerations in architectural design
  • Case studies: E-commerce, IoT, and healthcare systems

Week 13: Emerging Trends in Architecture

  • Exploring serverless architectures and function-as-a-service (FaaS)
  • Domain-driven design (DDD) and its applications
  • Future directions in architectural practices

Week 14: Capstone Project and Review

  • Designing a software architecture for a real-world problem
  • Final presentations and feedback from peers and instructors

Course Assessment

  • Assignments (25%): Hands-on tasks to design and evaluate architectural styles.
  • Paper-based Exam (40%): Theoretical evaluation of architectural principles and practices.
  • Capstone Project (25%): Collaborative design and implementation of a software architecture.
  • Participation (10%): Engagement in discussions, case studies, and peer reviews.

Resources

  • Textbooks:
  • Software Architecture in Practice by Len Bass, Paul Clements, and Rick Kazman
  • Clean Architecture: A Craftsman's Guide to Software Structure and Design by Robert C. Martin
  • Online Platforms:
  • Tools for architectural design and modeling, such as ArchiMate and UML tools
  • Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) for hands-on exercises
  • Research Papers:
  • Recent studies on software architectures from conferences such as WICSA and ECSA

Prerequisites

  • Basic understanding of software engineering and system design principles.
  • Familiarity with programming and fundamental development methodologies.

Contact Information

For inquiries, feel free to reach out via my webpage: www.m-zakeri.github.io.

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