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Domain Modelling

This document discusses domain modeling and conceptual modeling. It explains that a domain model diagrams real world concepts and their relationships, without focusing on software implementation details. The key elements of a domain model are identified as conceptual classes, associations between classes, and attributes of classes. The document provides guidance on identifying conceptual classes from nouns in use cases, avoiding software-specific elements, and modeling generalizations and associations with proper multiplicity. The goal of domain modeling is to understand and represent the concepts and relationships in the problem domain.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

20 views33 pages

Domain Modelling

Uploaded by

ZhichaoWang

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

You are on page 1/ 33

Domain Modelling

Sunday, 23 September 12

Part 1: Conceptual Classes

Sunday, 23 September 12

What is a Domain Model

Sunday, 23 September 12

a diagram (or set of diagrams) which represents real

world domain objects

conceptual classes

not a set of diagrams describing software classes, or

software objects with responsibilities

Why make a Domain Model?

to understand what concepts need to be modelled by

our system, and how those concepts relate

a springboard for designing software objects

Sunday, 23 September 12

What should it show?

Sunday, 23 September 12

conceptual classes
associations between conceptual classes
attributes of conceptual classes

Example

from Ch 9 Applying UML & Patterns (Larman 2004)

Sunday, 23 September 12

What should it avoid?

Sunday, 23 September 12

software artifacts

such as the User Interface or databases

responsibilities and methods

these should appear in sequence and class diagrams

Example
Include:
Sale
date
time

Avoid:

from Ch 9 Applying UML & Patterns (Larman 2004)

Sunday, 23 September 12

Identifying Conceptual
Classes

Sunday, 23 September 12

try to represent all the objects in the domain, whether

they are:
tangible objects

product, book

intangible concepts

course, route

people

student, lecturer

places

city, classroom

events

sale, enrolment

...or something else

booking policy

Noun-Phrase Identification

Sunday, 23 September 12

one way to identify conceptual classes

from client documents or use case descriptions
note that this wont capture everything

student

Example

The user requests a list of courses currently available for enrolment.

The system retrieves the list of courses available and displays the list to the user.

The system provides the user with the opportunity to select a course or to exit the use case.

The user selects a course for which he or she wants to enrol.

The system retrieves the details for the chosen course, including the course outline, timetable and
eligibility requirements and displays the details to the user.

The user confirms that he or she wants to enrol for the course.

The system checks that the user has taken and passed the pre-requisite courses for the chosen
course.

The system checks that the user is not already enrolled on a course whose timetable clashes with the
chosen course.

The system records that the user is now enrolled to the chosen course, updating the list of students.

10.

The system informs the user that enrolment has been successful, and offers the student the opportunity
to receive proof of enrolment.

...

Sunday, 23 September 12

Maintain the context of the

problem domain

where a concept already has a name, use it

dont add concepts that dont belong

dont include concepts from beyond the domains

boundary

model actual concepts rather than over-specific

versions of them

Sunday, 23 September 12

exhaust pipe, brake calliper, windshield - too specific

auto part (with an attribute of type)

- better

Object or Attribute
If we do not think of come conceptual class X as a
number or text in the real world, X is probably a
conceptual class, not an attribute.
Craig Larman in Applying UML & Patterns (2004)

Sunday, 23 September 12

Examples
Sale

Sale

store

Flight
Airport

Store
location

Flight

Airport
name

from Ch 9 Applying UML & Patterns (Larman 2004)

both Store and Airport represent concepts of interest in their own

right, so we model them as conceptual classes rather than attributes

Sunday, 23 September 12

Adding Specification or
Description Conceptual Classes

sometimes we need to separate out the description of

a concept from the concept itself, so that even if no
instances of the concept exist at a given point in time,
its description will still be present in the system

doing this can reduce unnecessary redundancy in

recording information when we move into design and
build

Sunday, 23 September 12

Examples

from Ch 9 Applying UML & Patterns (Larman 2004)

Sunday, 23 September 12

Examples

Describes-flights-to

from Ch 9 Applying UML & Patterns (Larman 2004)

Sunday, 23 September 12

Domain versus Design Models

from Ch 9 Applying UML & Patterns (Larman 2004)

Sunday, 23 September 12

Part 2: Associations

Sunday, 23 September 12

Associations

Sunday, 23 September 12

we should model the important relationships between

conceptual classes

not every relationship, that would create clutter and

confusion

not too few, we want a useful model

for each association, provide:

a short yet meaningful text label

the multiplicity

Example
Student
name

Course

takes

title

teaches

Lecturer
name

Sunday, 23 September 12

Multiplicity

how many instances of class A can be associated with a

single class B at a particular point in time
Student
name

8..*

takes

Course
0..3

title
0..3
teaches
1

Lecturer
name

Sunday, 23 September 12

Types of Multiplicity

Sunday, 23 September 12

many (zero or more)

1..*

many (one or more)

0..3

zero to three

1..3

one to three

exactly 8

2,4,6

exactly 2, 4 or 6

Many-to-Many?

where possible try to make all associations 1-to-n (or

0-to-n), since this will help to identify deeper concepts
in the domain
Student

Enrolment
1

name

0..3
makes

Course
8..*

name

is upon

title
0..3
teaches
1

Lecturer
name

Sunday, 23 September 12

Identifying Associations

one approach is to list for each conceptual class how it

relates to others:
each Student...

takes zero to three courses

has exactly one timetable
...

each Lecturer...

teaches zero to three courses

belongs to one or two
departments
...
is taught by exactly one lecturer
is taken by 8 to many students

each Course...

Sunday, 23 September 12

Multiple & Reflexive Associations

can two conceptual classes have multiple associations

with each other, and can a class associate with itself?
yes,

Sales Rep

1..*

1..*
makes sales in

name

manages

and yes

Course
title

Area

1 title

*
*
is pre-requisite for

but in each case it might be better to use generalisation and/or to add

further conceptual classes to the model

Sunday, 23 September 12

Generalisation

sometimes conceptual classes are (sub) types of

another class:
Student
student id

8..*

takes

Course
0..3

title
0..3
teaches
1

Person
name

Sunday, 23 September 12

Lecturer
employee #

Composition and Aggregation

Composition:
Chess Board

Square
colour

consists of

without the chess board, the square wouldnt exist...

Aggregation:
Class List

0..3

8..*
contains

Student
name

...but without the class list the student would

Sunday, 23 September 12

Part 3: Attributes

Sunday, 23 September 12

Object or Attribute
(reminder)

If we do not think of come conceptual class X as a

number or text in the real world, X is probably a
conceptual class, not an attribute.
Craig Larman in Applying UML & Patterns (2004)

Sunday, 23 September 12

No Foreign Keys
Student
student id
timetable

fails the simple number or text test

better:
Student

Timetable

student id

Why avoid listing foreign keys as attributes?

- because there may be more than one way to implement an
association in design
Sunday, 23 September 12

To conclude

find many associations between the conceptual classes,

but only model the useful ones

take care with multiplicity

Sunday, 23 September 12