What is good Software design?

1. What is good Software design.
Introduction
The introduction of a software design begins by stating the purpose of the
document. The purpose of the document should be very clearly explained
and any ambiguity should be carefully avoided. Then a brief description
about the software and its scope should be provided. The software should be
described properly highlighting its scope in the current market scenario. An
overview about the document and the product should also be included. In
addition, the list of any reference material which might have been used or the
list of the different definitions or acronyms which are a part of the document
can also be included.
Software design is a process through which the software requirements are
represented via a proper plan which highlights all the requirements and
specifications which have to be considered by the programmer for writing the
code for the software. The software design document lays out this plan in a
systematic manner and provides a clear pathway as to how these
requirements are going to be met by the programmer. It serves as the
primary reference for code development and hence should contain all the
information which may be required by a programmer to write the code. The
software design document template which has been discussed here is a
general template which can be used as a reference while writing a software
design document and necessary additions or omissions can be made to the
standard document according to the requirements of a particular project.
Software design and development is a process which can be simplified by
using a systematic approach. The software design document helps in
systematically laying a plan for the programming of the software. But before
the coding of the software begins, it is very important to comprehensively
test the software for various parameters like the usability, economic
feasibility and the commercial viability. The process which is utilized for
carrying out these tests is known as the software testing life cycle and you

2. can read more about the software testing life cycle in this informative
and well-written piece. To get a better idea about the different concepts of
software testing you can check out this amazing course about the basics
of software testing.
System Overview
The system overview contains a general description of the functionality,
context and design of the project. The overview should only briefly describe
these aspects and the comprehensive explanations will be done in the
sections to follow. The overview should serve as an introduction to these
sections.
System Architecture
The complete architectural design of the system should be explained in this
section. The complete functionality of the system should be explained by
dividing the system into a number of subsystems and then properly
explaining the working of each subsystem. The interconnection of all these
subsystems should also be explained properly to clearly explain how the final
design is to be achieved by connecting all these subsystems.
A clear understanding of the system architecture is very important for the
programmer to write the code correctly and hence a lot of emphasis should
be put on the development of this section. The subsystems and their
subsequent interconnection should be thoroughly explained in a very clear
and concise manner to avoid any sort of confusion for the programmer.
Data Design

3. The information about the different data structures to be used, databases and
data storage units is going to be included in this section. This information is
very important from the design point of view as it will help the programmer
in properly understanding all the data structures and databases which will be
required for the coding. For understanding this section properly it is very
important to have basic knowledge about databases and this great course
about the database management systems will serve the purpose and
will make you familiar with all the basic concepts.
Component Design
In this section, the functioning and responsibilities of each component of the
design are going to be described in detail. The understanding of the
functioning of each individual component is very important from the point of
view of the programmer and this explains the importance of this section.
Proper understanding of the functioning of different components allows the
programmer to break the whole project into smaller sub-projects and this
makes the whole process a lot more convenient.
Human Interface Design
This section will contain the complete information about how the user
interface of the software will work and how it will look like. The functionality
of the software from the user’s perspective should be described and it should
be properly explained how the user will access all the features being offered
by the software and how the feedback information will be displayed for the
user. The human interface is the most important aspect in the design of any
software as a simple and user-friendly interface can make even an average
software very popular with the general users whereas a complex interface will
hinder the popularity of even the most useful and highly functional software.
The information in this section should be accompanied with proper images
showing how exactly the designer visions the interface to be like. The images
can be hand-drawn or can be draw with the help of some software. The
images will work as a reference point for the programmers to properly design
the user interface exactly as per the vision of the designer.

4. Requirements
This section contains a list of all the data structures and components which
will be required by the programmer for coding of the software. The
requirements should be properly listed and the list should be as
comprehensive as the need be as some of the components might need some
licenses to be purchased for and this information should be duly sent to the
management team.
Appendices
This section is optional and can be included if the need be. Kinks or
references to supporting documents can be provided in this section which
will help in the better understanding of the concept of software development.
These are the major components of a proper software design document and
this template should be followed with some minor changes as per the
requirements of a particular project. The template which has been mentioned
here is just a standard template which can be used as a reference and
appropriate tweaks can be made to the document to suit the requirements of
the particular project. A software design document is a very important and
useful tool which helps in the proper planning for the development of the
software and works as a reference for writing the code. A clear and well-
written software design document will definitely ensure proper
communication between the designer and the programmer and will lead to
the most effective usage of all the available resources.
A software design document basically helps in the proper management of the
whole process of software development and this can also be achieved with
the help of a few other tools like Microsoft Project or Agile. These tools help
in the proper management of a software development project and help in
keeping the whole process systematic and hassle-free. The tools are very easy
to use and learn and you can check out this amazing course about
software development project management using Microsoft
project or this course about the basics of working with Agile which
will help you in learning the basics of using these tools and to become an
effective software development manager.