Object-Oriented Systems Analysis and Design Using UML

Object-oriented analysis and design can offer an approach that facilitates logical, rapid, and thorough methods for creating new systems responsive to a changing business landscape. Object-oriented techniques work well in situations in which complicated information systems are undergoing continuous maintenance, adaptation, and redesign. In this chapter, we introduce the unified modeling language (UML), the industry […]

Object-Oriented Concepts – Objects/Classes/Inheritance

Object-oriented programming differs from traditional procedural programming by examining the objects that are part of a system. Each object is a computer representation of some actual thing or event. General descriptions of the key object-oriented concepts of objects, classes, and inheritance are presented in this section, with further details on other UML concepts introduced later […]

CRC Cards and Object Think

Now that we have covered the fundamental concepts of object-oriented systems analysis and design, we need to examine ways to create classes and objects from the business problems and systems we are facing. One way to begin enacting the object-oriented approach is to start thinking and talking in this new way. One handy approach is […]

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) Concepts and Diagrams

The UML approach is well worth investigating and understanding, due to its wide acceptance and usage. UML provides a standardized set of tools to document the analysis and design of a software system. The UML toolset includes diagrams that allow people to visualize the construction of an object-oriented system, similar to the way a set […]

Use Case Modeling

UML is fundamentally based on an object-oriented analysis technique known as use case modeling, which was introduced in Chapter “Understanding and Modeling Organizational Systems“. A use case model shows a view of the system from the user perspective, thus describing what a system does without describing how the system does it. UML can be used […]

Activity Diagrams – Introduction

Activity diagrams show the sequence of activities in a process, including sequential and parallel activities, and decisions that are made. An activity diagram is usually created for one use case and may show the different possible scenarios. The symbols on an activity diagram are illustrated in the figure below. A rectangle with rounded ends represents […]

Creating Activity Diagrams

Activity diagrams are created by asking what happens first, what happens second, and so on. You must determine whether activities are done in sequence or in parallel. If physical data flow diagrams (as described in Chapter “Using Data Flow Diagrams“) have been created, they may be examined to determine the sequence of activities. Look for […]

Sequence and Communication Diagrams

An interaction diagram is either a sequence diagram or a communication diagram, both of which show essentially the same information. These diagrams, along with class diagrams, are used in a use case realization, which is a way to achieve or accomplish a use case. Sequence Diagrams Sequence diagrams can illustrate a succession of interactions between […]

Class Diagrams – Method Overloading, Types of Classes

Object-oriented methodologies work to discover classes, attributes, methods, and relationships between classes. Because programming occurs at the class level, defining classes is one of the most important object-oriented analysis tasks. Class diagrams show the static features of the system and do not represent any particular processing. A class diagram also shows the nature of the […]

Enhancing Sequence Diagrams

Once the class diagram is drawn, it may be desirable to go back to the sequence diagram and include special symbols for each of the different types of classes introduced in the last section. Sequence diagrams in particular can be overbearing if an analyst doesn’t have a systematic approach to drawing them. The following steps […]