Chapter 5 – System Modeling

Pepper modification of
Sommerville Software Engineering presentation

Chapter 5 System modeling 1

Topics covered

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

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Existing and planned system models

 Model the existing system - clarify minimum needs and

current process
 Model the new system - discuss new system requirements
 In a model-driven engineering process, use MDA (model
driven architecture) to create code from the models.

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System perspectives

 External
 context and environment (context model)
 Interaction
 Between system and its external environment (use case)
 Between the components of a system. (sequence diagram)
 Structural
 organization of a system (class diagram)
 structure of the data
 Behavioral
 Response to events (state diagram, activity diagram)

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Use of graphical models

 facilitating discussion
 Incomplete and incorrect models are OK as their role is to
support discussion.
 documenting an existing system
 accurate representation of the system but need not be complete.
 basis for system implementation
 Models have to be both correct and complete.

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Context models

 Context models
 Show what lies outside the system boundaries.
 Does not show process or how the systems interact
 Must first determine system boundaries
 Systems that need your system and those your system needs
 Profoundly effects system requirements
 Political judgment
• The boundary will often effect workflows in different departments

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The context of the MHC-PMS

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UML Activity Diagrams - behavior

 Can be used to define high level business process or workflows

 Shows how the system will be used at a high level
 Order of activity made of many actions
 Different from flowcharts - Support parallel behavior
 Shows essential sequencing
 Components
 Actions box - (can be a basis for another activity diagram)
 Process line
• Fork line - one in and several out - multiple actions can start
• Join line - close parallel actions - every action done by this line
 Condition diamonds - decisions
• Branch diamond - start conditional
• Merge diamond - join back to the flow
 Partition lines
• Illustrate which system does what

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Process model of involuntary detention

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Use case modeling - Interaction

 Originally developed for requirements phase

 Shows system boundary
 Shows interactions with the outside world
 Model discrete task - Set of scenarios with one goal
 Actors (roles) may be people or other systems.
 Diagram or Text
 Start with the main success case
 Write the other scenarios into the case as extensions
 Can include other already defined use cases
 Pre-condition / Guarantee at end / Trigger to start event
 Keep steps simple and show who is involved in each step

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Transfer-data use case

 A use case in the MHC-PMS

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Tabular description of the ‘Transfer data’ use-
case

MHC-PMS: Transfer data

Actors Medical receptionist, patient records system (PRS)
Description A receptionist may transfer data from the MHC-PMS to a
general patient record database that is maintained by a
health authority. The information transferred may either
be updated personal information (address, phone
number, etc.) or a summary of the patient’s diagnosis
and treatment.
Data Patient’s personal information, treatment summary
Stimulus User command issued by medical receptionist
Response Confirmation that PRS has been updated
Comments The receptionist must have appropriate security
permissions to access the patient information and the
PRS.

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Use cases in the MHC-PMS involving the role
‘Medical Receptionist’

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Sequence diagrams - Interaction

 Sequence during a single scenario or use case

 See behavior of several objects in one use case
 Illustrate calls between participants and who is in charge of each step
 Do not illustrate algorithms, loops, and conditions well
 The objects and actors (participants) at the top
 Dotted line drawn vertically (lifeline) from each participant
 Rectangle over dotted line for activation of object
 Interactions between objects -> annotated arrows
 Data passing can be listed on arrows. Can put a participant name on an arrow
 No need to determine how data is gathered, just that it is needed
 Use a return arrow if you feel it will be helpful
 Read Top to bottom; starting top left
 Alt box - can handle conditions; conditions in [ ]

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Sequence diagram for View patient information

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Sequence diagram for Transfer Data

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Class diagrams - Structural

 Class diagrams are used when developing an object-

oriented system model to show the classes in a system
and the associations between these classes.
 An object 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 some relationship between these classes.
 When you are developing models during the early stages
of the software engineering process, objects represent
something in the real world, such as a patient, a
prescription, doctor, etc.
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UML classes and association

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Classes and associations in the MHC-PMS

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The Consultation class

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Key points

 Model definition - abstract view of a system that ignores system

details. Types: system’s context, interactions, structure and
behavior.
 Context models - position in the environment
 Behavior - Activity diagram shows workflow
 Interaction - users (including other systems) and your system
 Use cases - who touches what
 Sequence diagrams - messages sent back and forth in a sequence.
 Structural - organization and architecture of a system.
 Class diagrams - define the static structure of classes in a system and their
association to other classes

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Chapter 5 – System Modeling

Lecture 2

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Generalization

 Generalization is an everyday technique that we use to

manage complexity.
 Rather than learn the detailed characteristics of every
entity that we experience, we place these entities in
more general classes (animals, cars, houses, etc.) and
learn the characteristics of these classes.
 This allows us to infer that different members of these
classes have some common characteristics e.g.
squirrels and rats are rodents.

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Generalization

 In modeling systems, it is often useful to examine the classes in a

system to see if there is scope for generalization. If changes
are proposed, then you do not have to look at all classes in the
system to see if they are affected by the change.
 In object-oriented languages, such as Java, generalization is
implemented using the class inheritance mechanisms built into
the language.
 In a generalization, the attributes and operations associated with
higher-level classes are also associated with the lower-level
classes.
 The lower-level classes are subclasses inherit the attributes and
operations from their superclasses. These lower-level classes
then add more specific attributes and operations.
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A generalization hierarchy

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A generalization hierarchy with added detail

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Object class aggregation models

 An aggregation model shows how classes that are

collections are composed of other classes.
 Aggregation models are similar to the part-of / has –a
relationship in semantic data models.
 Use a diamond at the containing side
 Fill the diamond if the part cannot exist without the whole

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The aggregation association

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Behavioral models

 Behavioral models – how a system responds to stimulus

 You can think of these stimuli as being of two types:
 Data Some data arrives that has to be processed by the system.
 Events Some event happens that triggers system processing.
Events may have associated data, although this is not always
the case.
 Diagrams - Input through to output
 Activity Diagram used on data
 Data (object / box) and Action ( oval )
 Sequence diagram
 Data (top box ) and Actions (arrows)

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An activity model of the insulin pump’s
operation

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Order processing

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Event-driven modeling

 Real-time systems are often event-driven, with minimal

data processing. For example, a landline phone
switching system responds to events such as ‘receiver
off hook’ by generating a dial tone.
 Event-driven modeling shows how a system responds to
external and internal events.
 It is based on the assumption that a system has a finite
number of states and that events (stimuli) may cause a
transition from one state to another.

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State machine models

 These model the behaviour of the system in response to

external and internal events.
 They show the system’s responses to stimuli so are
often used for modelling real-time systems.
 State machine models show system states as nodes
and events as arcs between these nodes. When an
event occurs, the system moves from one state to
another.
 Statecharts are an integral part of the UML and are used
to represent state machine models.

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State diagram of a microwave oven

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States and stimuli for the microwave oven (a)

State Description
Waiting The oven is waiting for input. The display shows the current time.
Half power The oven power is set to 300 watts. The display shows ‘Half power’.
Full power The oven power is set to 600 watts. The display shows ‘Full power’.
Set time The cooking time is set to the user’s input value. The display shows
the cooking time selected and is updated as the time is set.
Disabled Oven operation is disabled for safety. Interior oven light is on.
Display shows ‘Not ready’.
Enabled Oven operation is enabled. Interior oven light is off. Display shows
‘Ready to cook’.
Operation Oven in operation. Interior oven light is on. Display shows the timer
countdown. On completion of cooking, the buzzer is sounded for five
seconds. Oven light is on. Display shows ‘Cooking complete’ while
buzzer is sounding.

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States and stimuli for the microwave oven (b)

Stimulus Description
Half power The user has pressed the half-power button.

Full power The user has pressed the full-power button.

Timer The user has pressed one of the timer buttons.

Number The user has pressed a numeric key.

Door open The oven door switch is not closed.
Door closed The oven door switch is closed.
Start The user has pressed the Start button.
Cancel The user has pressed the Cancel button.

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Microwave oven operation – use superstate

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Usage of model-driven engineering

 MDE
 Raise level of abstraction in program spec
 Increase automation in programming
 Pros
 Allows systems to be considered at higher levels of abstraction
 Generating code automatically means that it is cheaper to adapt
systems to new platforms.
 Cons
 Models for abstraction and not necessarily right for
implementation.
 Savings from generating code may be outweighed by the costs of
developing translators for new platforms.
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Model driven architecture (used by MDE)

 MDA is a model-focused approach to software design

and implementation that uses a subset 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.

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Types of model

 A computation independent model (CIM)

 These model the important domain abstractions used in a system.
CIMs are sometimes called domain models.
 A platform independent model (PIM)
 These model the operation of the system without reference to its
implementation. The PIM is usually described using UML models
that show the static system structure and how it responds to
external and internal events.
 Platform specific models (PSM)
 These are transformations of the platform-independent model with
a separate PSM for each application platform. In principle, there
may be layers of PSM, with each layer adding some platform-
specific detail.
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MDA transformations

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Multiple platform-specific models

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Agile methods and MDA

 The developers of MDA claim that it is intended to

support an iterative approach to development and so can
be used within agile methods.
 The notion of extensive up-front modeling contradicts the
fundamental ideas in the agile manifesto and I suspect
that few agile developers feel comfortable with model-
driven engineering.
 If transformations can be completely automated and a
complete program generated from a PIM, then, in
principle, MDA could be used in an agile development
process as no separate coding would be required.

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Executable UML

 The fundamental notion behind model-driven

engineering is that completely automated transformation
of models to code should be possible.
 This is possible using a subset of UML 2, called
Executable UML or xUML.

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Features of executable UML

 To create an executable subset of UML, the number of

model types has therefore been dramatically reduced to
these 3 key types:
 Domain models that identify the principal concerns in a system.
They are defined using UML class diagrams and include objects,
attributes and associations.
 Class models in which classes are defined, along with their
attributes and operations.
 State models in which a state diagram is associated with each
class and is used to describe the life cycle of the class.
 The dynamic behavior of the system may be specified
declaratively using the object constraint language (OCL),
or may be expressed using UML’s action language.
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Key points

 Behavioral models are used to describe the dynamic behavior

of an executing system. This behavior can be modeled from
the perspective of the data processed by the system, or by
the events that stimulate responses from a system.
 Activity diagrams may be used to model the processing of
data, where each activity represents one process step.
 State diagrams are used to model a system’s behavior in
response to internal or external events.
 Model-driven engineering is an approach to software
development in which a system is represented as a set of
models that can be automatically transformed to executable
code.
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