CSC407: Software Architecture

Winter 2007
The ICONIX Process

Greg Wilson
BA 4234
[email protected]

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Architecture Follows Process
• Good organizations know what their
process is
– So that they can repeat their successes
• ICONIX is a “lite” version of Rational
Unified Process (RUP) and its kin
– The bigger the project, the more formalism you
need

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GUI Prototype
Roadmap Sequence
Diagram

Use Cases

Robustness
Diagram

Domain
Model

Class
Diagram
Code
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How to Get From Uses Cases to
Code?
GUI Prototype

Use Cases

Code

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Work Backwards
• We need a complete set of classes, with
accompanying attributes and methods
– So we need design-level class diagrams
• Before we have methods, we need to
allocate behavior to classes
– So we need sequence diagrams for the use cases

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 …Work Backwards
• Before we do sequence diagrams, we need
to know which objects are involved in
which use cases
– Get this information from robustness diagrams
– Which are produced by robustness analysis
– Which is not part of the UML standard, but is
very useful

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 …Work Backwards
• Before we can do robustness analysis, we
need a domain model
– Need this anyway so that we can be sure we
understand the customer’s view of the world
• So now let’s work forward

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Step 1: Requirements
• Identify real-world domain objects and the
relationships between them
• Prototype a GUI
• Identify use cases
• Milestone 1: requirements review

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Step 2: Analysis
• Write use cases
• Perform robustness analysis
– Identify objects used in each use case
– Update domain model
• Milestone 2: preliminary design review

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Step 3: Design
• Identify messages sent between objects
• Finish turning domain model into class
diagram
– Add visibility, member variables, etc.
– Decide relationship types
• Milestone 3: detailed design review

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Step 4: Delivery
• Write unit tests
• Write code
• Perform integration testing
• Milestone 4: deployment

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GUI Prototype
Requirements Revisited
Use Cases
• Sometimes called the
"discovery" phase
– Discover what the
customer wants
Domain
– Discover how the
Model system wants to be built
• Goal is to build a
coherent vocabulary
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Grammatical Discovery
• Simplest way to get started is grammatical
discovery
– Interview customer (or read email archive)
– Nouns become objects, verbs become methods
• Don't spend too much time in this phase
– Even on a large project, a few days is plenty of
time to evolve a problem-specific language that
you can use for the rest of the work
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What To Look For
• Duplicate terms
• Which objects interact directly with which
• Which objects generalize which
• Which objects "own" or "contain" which
– Worry about multiplicity later
– But make a note if a relationship has properties

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Domain Modeling Errors
• Don't assign multiplicities early
• Dont' try to do use cases, domain modeling,
and GUI prototyping independently
• Don't worry about using generics, relational
database tables, etc., at this stage
• Don't try to impose design patterns

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Analysis Revisited Sequence
Diagram

Use Cases

Robustness
Diagram

Domain
Model • Bridge between
analysis and design
• What does each thing
actually do?
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Purpose of Robustness Analysis
• Sanity check on use cases
• Completeness check: are all alternative
cases accounted for?
• Ongoing discovery of objects
• Preliminary design

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Three Types of Objects
• Boundary objects are things that actors
(e.g., users) interact with
– Windows, dialogs, etc.
• Entity objects are long-lived data
– Typically mapped to database tables
• Control objects contain the application's
intelligence
• Yes, this is Model-View-Controller…
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 Drawing Robustness Diagrams

Allowed
Boundary object

Entity object

Control object
Not Allowed
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Interaction Analysis
• Robustness analysis told us which objects
talk to which
• Interaction analysis tells us what they say
• Translate use cases into sequence diagrams
– Translation can't be done directly if we don't
know what objects we have

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Sequence Diagram Format
• Each sequence diagram should contain:
– The text of the use case
– Objects (use the robustness diagram icons)
– Messages (arrows between lifelines)
– Method names (labels on arrows)
• Advanced tools can produce these semi-
automatically

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How To Tell If It's Right
• Does it meet the first lecture's criteria?
– Single Responsibility Principle
– Liskov Substitution Principle
– Law of Demeter
• This is the time to use collaboration
diagrams and state diagrams
– If you're going to use them at all…

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 Sequence
Diagram
Classes and Code
• After all this, the final
design and coding are
straightforward
Domain
Model

Class
Diagram
Code
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