Advanced Systems Analysis and Design – MSIS811

Dr. Asif Khan

System Modeling

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Topics covered

 System modeling
 Context models
 Interaction models
 Structural models
 Behavioral models
 Model-driven engineering

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System Modelling

 System modelling is the process of developing

abstract models of a system, with each model
presenting a different view or perspective of that
system.
 System modelling has generally come to mean
representing the system using some kind of graphical
notation, which is now almost always based on
notations in the Unified Modeling Language (UML).
 Models are used during the requirements engineering
process to help derive the requirements for a system,
during the design process to describe the system

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 System modeling continued..

Models may be developed of both the existing system and

the system to be developed.
 Models of the existing system are used during
requirements engineering that help clarify what the
existing system does and can be used as a basis for
discussing its strengths and weaknesses.
 Models of the new system are used during requirements
engineering to help explain the proposed requirements
to other system stakeholders.

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 System perspectives

Models of a system may be developed in different

perspectives, for example:
 An external perspective, where you model the context
or environment of the system.
 An interaction perspective where you model the
interactions between a system and its environment or
between the components of a system.
 A structural perspective, where you model the
organization of a system or the structure of the data
that is processed by the system.

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System perspectives continued..

 A behavioral perspective, where you model the

dynamic behavior of the system and how it responds
to events.

The UML has many diagram types for creation of many

different types of system model, but five key types are
worth to discuss used in modeling of a system

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 UML diagrams

 Activity diagrams, which show the activities involved in

a process or in data processing.
 Use case diagrams, which show the interactions
between a system and its environment.
 Sequence diagrams, which show interactions between
actors and the system and between system components.
 Class diagrams, which show the object classes in the
system and the associations between these classes.
 State diagrams, which show how the system reacts to
internal and external events.

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 Context models
 At an early stage in the specification of a system, one should decide
on the system boundaries.
 This involves working with system stakeholders to decide what
functionality should be included in the system and what is provided
by the system’s environment.
 A decision can be made that automated support for some business
processes should be implemented but others should be manual
processes or supported by different systems.
 One should look at possible overlaps in functionality with existing
systems and decide where new functionality should be
implemented
 These decisions should be made early in the process to limit the
system costs and the time needed for understanding the system
requirements and design
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Context models continued..

• In some cases, the boundary between a system and its

environment is relatively clear.
For example, where an automated system is replacing an existing manual or
computerized system, the environment of the new system is usually the
same as the existing system’s environment

 Consider you are developing the specification for the patient information
system for medical clinic. This system is intended to manage information
about patients attending the clinics and the treatments that have been
prescribed.
 In developing the specification for this system, you have to decide whether
the system should focus exclusively on collecting information about
consultations (using other systems to collect personal information about
patients) or whether it should also collect personal patient information

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 Context models continued..

• The figure is a simple

context model that shows Patient record
system
the patient information
system and the other
systems in its
environment. Statistics Admission
system system

• Context models normally

Patient management
show that the system
environment includes
several other automated
systems. However, they Appointment
Prescription system
system
do not show the types of
relationships between the
systems in the
environment and the
system that is being Report system
specified.

• External systems might

produce data for or
consume data from the
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system.
Context models continued..

 Once some decisions on the boundaries of the

system have been made, part of the analysis activity
is the definition of that context and the dependencies
that a system has on its environment. Normally,
producing a simple architectural model is the first
step in this activity

 Simple context models are used along with other

models, such as business process models. These
describe human and automated processes in which
particular software systems are used

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Processes in activity diagram

Activity diagrams are intended to show the activities that

make up a system process and the flow of control from
one activity to another.

The start of a process is indicated by a filled circle; the end

by a filled circle inside another circle.

Rectangles with round corners represent activities, that is,

the specific sub-processes that must be carried out.

You may include objects in activity charts

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Processes in activity diagram

Transfer to
Not police station
available
Confirm
detention
decision
Find secure Available Inform social
place care
Transfer to
secure
place

Inform next of
dangerous kin
Inform
patient rights

Update
Not register
Record
dangerous
detention Admit to hospital
decision

Patient Admission Patient

management system system management system

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Example

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Interaction models

 All systems involve interaction of some kind. This can be user

interaction, which involves user inputs and outputs, interaction
between the system being developed and other systems or
interaction between the components of the system.
 Modeling user interaction is important as it helps to identify
user requirements. Modeling system to system interaction
highlights the communication problems that may arise.
 Modeling component interaction helps us understand if a
proposed system structure is likely to deliver the required
system performance and dependability

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Interaction models continued..

 Interaction modeling uses two approaches i.e. use case and

sequence diagrams.
 Use case modeling, which is mostly used to model interactions
between a system and external actors (users or other systems).
 Sequence diagrams, which are used to model interactions
between system components, although external agents may
also be included
 Use case models and sequence diagrams present interaction at
different levels of detail and so may be used together

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 Use case modeling

Use case modeling is widely used to support requirements

elicitation. A use case can be taken as a simple scenario that describes
what a user expects from a system.

Register in a
course

Administrator
Student

• Use case diagrams give a fairly simple overview of an interaction

so one has to provide more detail to understand what is
involved.

• This detail can either be a simple textual description, a

structured description in a table, or a sequence diagram

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Use case modeling continued..

Descriptive use case

Actors: Student, Administrator
Description: A student provides data for registration in a course and the information flows to
the
administrator and the data is maintained in registration system.
Data : Student’s personal & academic information
Response: Confirmation that data has been received
Comments: The student & administrator must have appropriate permissions to access
system
Use cases and actors Actors use communication sticks to interact with use cases

Register in a
course

Student Administrator

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Use cases are linked with each other by two types of
relationships i.e. include and extend

Login

e >>
<<includ

Search a
catalogue
Student
<<extend>>

Borrow a
book

Librarian

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Sequence diagrams
• Sequence diagrams in the UML are primarily used to model the
interactions between the actors and the objects in a system and
the interactions between the objects themselves.

• As the name implies, a sequence diagram shows the sequence

of interactions that take place during a particular use case or
use case instance

• The next diagram models the interactions involved in the View

patient information use case, where a medical receptionist can
see some patient information

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 Sequence diagrams continued..

Receptionist

P: PatientInfo D: SystemDB A: Authorization

ViewInfo (PID)

Report (Info, PID, UID)

Authorize (Info, UID)

Authorization

alt Patient info

Authorization

Error (No Access)

Authorization Fail

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Structural models

 Structural models of software display the

organization of a system in terms of the components
that make up that system and their relationship.
 Structural models may be static models, which show
the structure of the system design or dynamic
models, which show the organization of the system
when it is executing.
 Structural models of a system are created when
designing of the system architecture is discussed.

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Class diagrams

 Class diagrams are used when developing an object-

oriented system model to show the classes in a
system and the associations between these classes

 A class can be thought of as a general definition of one kind of

system object. An association is a link between classes that
indicates that there is a relationship between these classes.

Patient
Patient
record
A simple class diagram showing two classes:
Patient and Patient Record with an association
between them

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Class diagrams continued..

 When showing the associations between classes, it is

convenient to represent these classes in the simplest possible
way.
 To define them in more detail, you add information about their
attributes (the characteristics of an object) and operations (the
things that you can request from an object).

Doctor
Name
ID
Phone
Office no
Time

Name()
Time()
…

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Class diagrams associations

 Associations between the classes can be represented in the

following forms
 Generalization: Generalization is an everyday technique that is
used to manage complexity.
 In modeling systems, it is often useful to examine the classes in a system
to see if there is scope for generalization. This means that common
information will be maintained in one place only
Employee

Manager Supervisor

Bank manager Store manager

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Class diagrams associations continued...

 In a generalization, the attributes and operations associated with

higher-level classes are also associated with the lower-level classes.

 In essence, the lower-level classes are subclasses inherit the attributes

and operations from their superclasses.

Aggregation: The UML provides a special type of association between

classes called aggregation that means that one object (the whole) is
composed of other objects (the parts).
Computer Keyboard
Mouse

Processor Monitor

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Behavioral models

 Behavioral models are models of the dynamic behavior of the

system as it is executing.

 They show what happens or what is supposed to happen when

a system responds to a stimulus from its environment.

 These stimuli can be considered as being of two types:

1. Data: Some data arrives that has to be processed by the

system.
2. Events: Some event happens that triggers system
processing. Events may have associated data but this is not
always the case.

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 Model-driven engineering

 Model-driven engineering (MDE) is an approach to software

development where models rather than programs are the principal
outputs of the development process.
 Model-driven engineering has its roots in model-driven architecture
(MDA) which was proposed by the Object Management Group
(OMG) in 2001 as a new software development paradigm.
 MDE allows engineers to think about systems at a high level of
abstraction, without concern for the details of their implementation.
 This reduces the likelihood of errors, speeds up the design and
implementation process, and allows for the creation of reusable,
platform-independent application models.

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 Model-driven architecture (MDA)

Model-driven architecture is a model-focused approach

to software design and implementation that uses a sub-
set of UML models to describe a system

Models at different levels of abstraction are created.

From a high-level platform independent model it is
possible, in principle, to generate a working program
without manual intervention

The MDA method recommends that three types of

abstract system model should be produced

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 Model-driven architecture (MDA) continued..

A computation independent model (CIM) that models the important

domain abstractions used in the system. CIMs are sometimes called
domain models.

A platform independent model (PIM) that models the operation of the

system without reference to its implementation. PIM shows static
structure using UML.

Platform specific models (PSM) which are transformations of the

platform independent model with a separate PSM for each application
platform.

A transformation is applied to the PSM to generate

executable code that runs on the designated software
platform.
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