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The following figure depicts the relationships between element, component, software unit, and item, which are used consistently in the engineering processes.
Element Item
SYS.2
System Requirements Analysis
SYS.5
System Qualification Test
SYS.3
System Architectural Design
SYS.4
System Integration and Integration Test
SWE.1
Software Requirements Analysis
SWE.6
Software Qualification Test
SWE.5
Software Integration and Integration Test
SWE.3 | SWE.4 Software Unit Verification | |||
Unit | Software Detailed Design and Unit Construction |
Component
SWE.2
Software Architectural Design
Figure D.3 — Element, component, unit, and item
An architecture consists of architectural "elements" that can be further decomposed into more fine- grained architectural sub-"elements" across appropriate hierarchical levels. The software "components" are the lowest-level "elements" of the software architecture for which finally the detailed design is defined. A software "component" consists of one or more software "units".
"Items" on the right side of the V-model correspond to "elements" on the left side (e.g. a software "item" can be an object file, a library or an executable). This can be a 1:1 or m:n relationship, e.g. an "item" may represent more than one architectural "element".