Module

• A module consists of:

– several functions D1 ..
– associated data D2 ..
D3 ..
Data
structures. F1
F2
..
.. Functions
F3 ..
F4 ..
F5 ..
 High-level
design d1 d2

• Identify: d3 d4
d1

- modules
- control relationships among modules
- interfaces among modules.
 High-level design
• The outcome of high-level design:
–program structure, also called software
architecture.
 Modularity
• In technical terms, modules should display:
– high cohesion
– low coupling.
 Layering

Superior
Inferior
 :Sourc
e

Bad
design
may look
like this…
 Coupling: Degree of dependence among
components High coupling makes
modifying parts of the
system difficult, e.g.,
No dependencies Loosely coupled-some dependencies modifying a component
affects all the components
to which the component is
connected.

Highly coupled-many dependencies

 Cohesion and Coupling
• Cohesion is a measure of:
– functional strength of a module.
– A cohesive module performs a single task or
function.
• Coupling between two modules:
– A measure of the degree of
interdependence or interaction between
the two modules.
 Cohesion and Coupling
• A module having high cohesion and low
coupling:
– Called functionally independent of other
modules:
• A functionally independent module needs very little
help from other modules and therefore has minimal
interaction with other modules.
 Measuring Functional Independence
• Unfortunately, there are no ways:
– to quantitatively measure the degree of cohesion
and coupling:
– At least classification of different kinds of cohesion and
coupling:
• will give us some idea regarding the degree of
cohesiveness of a module.
 functional
sequential
Classification of communicational
Cohesiveness Degree of
procedural cohesion
temporal
logical
coincidental
 Coincidental cohesion
• The module performs a set of tasks:
– which relate to each other very loosely, if at
all.
• That is, the module contains a random
collection of functions.
• functions have been put in the module out
of pure coincidence without any thought or
design.
 Coincidental Cohesion - example
Module AAA{

Print-inventory();

Register-Student();

Issue-Book();
};
 Logical cohesion
• All elements of the module perform
similar operations:
– e.g. error handling, data input, data output, etc.
• An example of logical cohesion:
– a set of print functions to generate an output
report arranged into a single module.
 Logical Cohesion
module print{
void print-grades(student-file){ …}

void print-certificates(student-file){…}

void print-salary(teacher-file){…}
}
 Temporal cohesion
• The module contains functions so that:
– all the functions must be executed in the same
time span.
• Example:
– The set of functions responsible for
• initialization,
• start-up, shut-down of some process, etc.
init() {

Check-memory(); Temporal
Check-Hard-disk(); Cohesion –
Example
Initialize-Ports();

Display-Login-Screen();

}
 Procedural cohesion
• The set of functions of the module:
– all part of a procedure (algorithm)
– certain sequence of steps have to be carried
out in a certain order for achieving an
objective,
• e.g. the algorithm for decoding a message.
 Communicational cohesion
• All functions of the module:
– Reference or update the same data structure,
• Example:
– The set of functions defined on an array or a
stack.
 Communicational Cohesion
handle-Student- Data() {
Static Struct Student-data[10000];
Store-student-data();
Function A
Search-Student-data();
Function B

Print-all-students(); Function C

}; Communicational
Access same data
 Sequential cohesion
• Elements of a module form different parts
of a sequence,
– output from one element of sort
the sequence is input to the
search
next.
display
– Example:
 Functional cohesion
• Different elements of a module cooperate:
– to achieve a single function,
– e.g. managing an employee's pay-roll.
• When a module displays functional cohesion,
– we can describe the function using a single
sentence.
Write down a sentence to describe the function of the
module Determining
– If the sentence is compound, Cohesiveness
• it has a sequential or communicational cohesion.
– If it has words like “first”, “next”, “after”, “then”,
etc.
• it has sequential or temporal cohesion.
– If it has words like initialize,
• it probably has temporal cohesion.
 Coupling
• Coupling indicates:
– how closely two modules interact or
how interdependent they are.
– The degree of coupling between two
modules depends on their interface
complexity.
 Coupling
• There are no ways to precisely measure coupling
between two modules:
– classification of different types of coupling will help
us to approximately estimate the degree of coupling
between two modules.

• Five types of coupling can exist between any two

modules.
 Classes of
coupling
data
stamp
control Degree of
coupling
common
content
 Data coupling
• Two modules are data coupled,
– if they communicate via a parameter:
• an elementary data item,
• e.g an integer, a float, a character, etc.
– The data item should be problem related:
• not used for control purpose.
 Stamp coupling
• Two modules are stamp coupled,
– if they communicate via a composite data item

• or an array or structure in C.
 Control coupling
• Data from one module is used to direct
– order of instruction execution in another.
• Example of control coupling:
– a flag set in one module and tested in another
module.
 Common Coupling

• Two modules are common coupled,

– if they share some global data.
 Content coupling
• Content coupling exists between two modules:
– if they share code,
– e.g, branching from one module into another
module.
• The degree of coupling increases
– from data coupling to content coupling.
 Hierarchical Design
• Control hierarchy represents:
– organization of modules.
– control hierarchy is also called program structure.
• Most common notation:
– a tree-like diagram called structure chart.
Software
Architecture
 Good Hierachical Arrangement of
modules

• Essentially means:
– low fan-out
– abstraction
Morphology
 Characteristics of Module Structure
• Depth:
– number of levels of control
• Width:
– overall span of control.
• Fan-out:
– a measure of the number of modules directly
controlled by given module.
 Characteristics of Module Structure
• Fan-in:
– indicates how many modules
directly invoke a given module.
– High fan-in represents code reuse
and is in general encouraged.
Example
Module Structure
Fan out=2

Fan out=1
Fan in=1

Fan in=2
Fan out=0
 Goodness of Design
• A design having modules:
– with high fan-out numbers is
not a good design.

– a module having high fan-out lacks cohesion.

 Large Fan Out
• A module that invokes a large
number of other modules:
– likely to implement several different functions:
– not likely to perform a single cohesive function.