Structural Modeling and Class Diagrams

Flashcards covering concepts of structural modeling, class diagram syntax, association multiplicities, and guidelines for identifying objects from business domain scenarios.

Class

Represents a kind of person, place, or thing about which the system will need to capture and store information. It contains a bold, centered name in its top compartment, attributes in its middle compartment, and operations in its bottom compartment.

Attribute

Represents properties that describe the state of an object in a class diagram.

Derived Attribute

An attribute that can be derived from other attributes, indicated by placing a slash before the attribute's name.

Operation

Represents the actions or functions that a class can perform. It can be classified as a constructor, query, or update operation, and includes parentheses for potential parameters.

Association

Represents a relationship between multiple classes or a class and itself. It is labeled using a verb phrase or role name and contains multiplicity symbols.

Generalization

Represents a-kind-of relationship between multiple classes.

Aggregation

A special form of an association representing a logical a-part-of relationship between multiple classes or a class and itself.

Composition

A special form of an association representing a physical a-part-of relationship between multiple classes or a class and itself.

Structural View

An internal view of analysis modeling that focuses on structural models, including class diagrams and object diagrams.

Multiplicity

Symbols in association relationships that represent the minimum and maximum times a class instance can be associated with a related class instance.

Multiplicity Symbol: 1

Indicates an association multiplicity of exactly one.

Multiplicity Symbol: 0..*

Indicates an association multiplicity of zero or more.

Multiplicity Symbol: 1..*

Indicates an association multiplicity of one or more.

Multiplicity Symbol: 0..1

Indicates an association multiplicity of zero or one.

Multiplicity Symbol: 2..4

Indicates an association multiplicity restricted to a specified range.

Multiplicity Symbol: 1..3,5

Indicates an association multiplicity featuring multiple, disjoint ranges.

Guidelines for Creating Class Diagrams

A four-step process: 1. Review use cases; 2. Identify relevant actors and objects; 3. Role-play scenarios; 4. Repeat steps 1 through 3.

Physical or Tangible Objects

Objects in the business domain such as books, desks, chairs, and office equipment, which are usually the easiest to identify.

Incidents

Events that occur in the business domain, such as meetings, flights, performances, or accidents.

Roles

Roles that people play in the problem domain, such as doctor, nurse, patient, or receptionist, identified by reviewing use cases.

Interactions

Transactions that take place in the business domain, such as a sales transaction.