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Block Diagrams — Advantages and Limitations

publish date: 2026/06/10 09:23:16.744939 UTC

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Block diagrams are widely used to describe system architectures. Which of the following correctly identifies both an advantage AND a limitation of informal block diagrams?

Advantage: they replace the need for any other documentation; Limitation: they require specialised tools to create

Advantage: they are the only notation with well-defined semantics for architecture; Limitation: they cannot be generated automatically

Advantage: they present a high-level picture that people from different disciplines can readily understand; Limitation: they do not show the type of relationships among components nor their externally visible properties

Advantage: they show the type of all relationships between components; Limitation: they are difficult to draw

Correct Answer

Explanation

Block diagrams present a high-level picture of the system structure that people from different disciplines can readily understand. However, critics such as Bass et al. point out that informal block diagrams show neither the type of the relationships among system components nor the components' externally visible properties, making them poor architectural representations in formal terms.

Reference

Software Engineering, Ian Sommerville, 10th edition

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