Pipes and Filters

Kind: style

Layer: Structural Core

Record: architecture:pipes-and-filters

Severity: recommended

Scope: application, data processing, composition

Canonical: Ontology

A convention of processing data through independent stages that share one input and output interface.

Listed in Architecture principles, after Monolith Architecture and before Service-Oriented Architecture.

Requires

• Uniform Stage Interface

Reinforces

• Single Responsibility Principle (SRP)
• Composability

Enables

• Reorderable Stages
• Independent Stage Testing

Conflicts with

• Monolithic Transform Function

In tension with

• End-to-End Traceability

Tensions

• Pipes and Filters / End-to-End Traceability

Violated by

• Monolithic Transform Function

Refactored by

• Pipeline Architecture

Severity

• recommended

Category

• Codebase / System Architecture Styles

Linked from

• Core Modular Design
• Codebase / System Architecture Styles
• Severity levels
• The resolutions