The 4+1 View Model

When we are doing a software Project, not only is the code part, there are many aspects that contribute to develop it. In many courses of the major, like software engineering, it is mentioned methodologies to construct software. In many of these there is a phase called design. At this point you need to make a mockup of the project, like how the interfaces will be connected, the interaction with the user, or the results that are expected. In my opinion it is the most important because it helps you to make a clear idea of how the program will be (Software Architecture). As well if would help you to resolve doubts with your client and/or users of it.

The 4+1 view is a software engineering methodology that divides a project in the next parts:

-          Logical view: where you insert what components will be made, and how they behave.

-          Development view: is the organization of the assets during the development work.

-          Process view: is where you make the activity and timing diagram.

-          Physical view: how software and hardware are related and how the system looks like when it is finished

-          Scenarios: How the system interacts with the world and systems around it.

Having said that this is a clear model if you don’t want to spent time creating a specific design. It allows you to extract the most important characteristics of the program.

Notably to create the exact “definition” of the program that we will create, we need the requirements and specifications of our client. In many times, specially when you are junior, we don’t extract this characteristic at a 100%, we only see one half, instead of the entire project. The story of “The Elephant and the Blind Programmers” is a clear example of this topic, specially when we are working in teams. Everyone has its own perspective and if there isn’t a leader there will be complications.

As a programmer you must have to implement these ideas clearly. It doesn’t matter if you only write a part of the software because you will make a clear code