Systems Analysis and Design - Chapter 4

A class that only exists in a model so subclasses can inherit from it.

A class that only exists in a model so subclasses can inherit from it.

Abstract Class

Descriptions of the activities performed as part of a transition.

Action-Expressions

A type of whole-part relationship in which the component parts also exist as individual objects apart from the aggregate.

Aggregation

A term, in UML, that describes a naturally occurring relationship between specific things.

Association

An association that is also treated as a class; often required in order to capture attributes for the association.

Association Class

Descriptive pieces of information about things or objects.

Attributes

Associations between exactly two distinct types of things.

Binary Associations

A technique used to identify problem domain classes in which developers work with users to identify classes by thinking about different types of things they use in their work.

Brainstorming Technique

When words are concatenated to form a single word and the first letter of each embedded word is capitalized.

Camelback Notation

When words are concatenated to form a single word and the first letter of each embedded word is capitalized.

Camelcase Notation

A measure of the number of links in a particular relationship between a thing (database data entity) and one or more other things (database data entities)

Cardinality

A category or classification of a set of objects or things.

Class

A diagram consisting of classes (i.e. sets of objects) and associations among the classes.

Class Diagram

A type of whole-part relationship in which the component parts cannot exist as individual objects apart from the total composition.

Composition

An attribute that consists of multiple pieces of information but is best treated in the aggregate.

Compound Attribute

A class that allows individual objects or instances to exist.

Concrete Class

The condition of being in more than one state at a time.

Concurrency (Concurrent States)

When one or more states in a path are parallel to one or more states in another path.

Concurrent Paths

The term used in ERD modeling to describe things about which the system needs to store information.

Data Entities

For a particular transition, the state to which an object moves after the completion of a transition.

Destination State

Classes that describes objects from the problem domain.

Domain Classes

A class diagram that only includes classes from the problem domain.

Domain Model Class Diagram

A diagram consisting of data entities, their attributes, and their relationships.

Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD)

A type of hierarchical relationship in which subordinate classes are subsets of objects of the superior classes; an inheritance hierarchy.

Generalization/Specialization Relationships

A true/false test to see whether a transition can fire.

Guard-Condition

An attribute the value which uniquely identifies an individual think or object.

Identifier (Key)

The concept that specialization classes inherit characteristics of the generalization class.

Inheritance

In UML, a measure of the number of links in a particular association between a thing (object) and one or more other things (objects).

Multiplicity

The actual numeric count of the constraints on things (UML objects) allowed in an association.

Multiplicity Constraints

An association between n distinct types of things.

N-Ary Association

A technique used to identify things in the problem domain by finding and classifying the nouns in a dialog or description.

Noun Technique

For a particular transition, the original state of an object from which the transition occurs.

Origin State

A sequential set of connected states and transitions.

Path

The area of expertise or application that needs to be examined to solve a problem. A problem domain is simply looking at only the topics of an individual's interest, and excluding everything else.

Problem Domain

The starting point of a state machine diagram, indicated by a black dot.

Pseudostate

A term, in database management, that describes a naturally occurring association between specific things.

Relationship

A graphical representation of an individual data entity and its relationship with other individual data entities.

Semantic Net

A condition during an object's life when it satisfies some criterion, performs some action, or waits for an event.

State

A diagram showing the life of an object in states and transitions.

State Machine Diagram

The subordinate or more specialized class in a generalization/specialization relationship.

Subclass

The superior or more general class in a generalization/specialization relationship.

Superclass

An association between exactly three types of things.

Ternary Association

The movement of an object from one state to another state.

Transition

An association between two instances of the same type of thing.

Unary Association

Relationships between classes in which one class is a part or a component portion of another class.

Whole-Part Relationship