Chapter 5 - Structural Modeling

Vocabulary practice cards covering key topics in Chapter 5 Structural Modeling, including object identification, structural relationships, UML class notation, multiplicity, patterns, and CRC cards.

Structural Model

A model that describes the structure of data supporting business processes in an organization using CRC cards, class diagrams, and object diagrams.

Class

A template used for creating instances or objects in software engineering.

Concrete Class

A class that can be instantiated directly to create object instances.

Abstract Class

A class that provides useful abstractions but cannot be directly instantiated.

Domain Classes

Classes categorized based on real-world entity types, including application domain, user interface, data structure, file structure, operating environment, document, and multimedia classes.

Attribute

Units of information that describe the state or properties relevant to a class.

Operation

Actions or functions that instances of a class can perform, referred to as methods later in design.

Generalization

A relationship that enables the inheritance of attributes and operations, representing a kind-of relationship between superclasses and subclasses.

Superclass

A parent class whose attributes and operations are defined once and inherited by subclasses.

Subclass

A child class that inherits attributes and operations from a superclass.

Specialization

The creation of specific subclasses from a broader superclass entity.

Aggregation

A logical a-part-of relationship between wholes and parts, acting as the opposite of decomposition.

Association

A relationship representing miscellaneous connections between multiple classes or between a class and itself.

Textual Analysis

An object identification technique analyzing use-case text where nouns suggest classes and verbs suggest operations.

Grammatical Rules for Object Identification

Mapping rules where nouns imply classes or instances, adjectives imply attributes, verbs imply operations/relationships, and adverbs imply attributes of relationships/operations.

Transitive Verb Rule

In object identification textual analysis, a transitive verb implies an operation acting on an object.

Intransitive Verb Rule

In object identification textual analysis, an intransitive verb implies an exception.

Transaction Pattern

A recurring structural pattern comprising Place, Transaction, Participant, Transaction Line Item, and Item classes.

Party Pattern

A recurring structural pattern where a Party superclass generalizes Person and Organization subclasses.

Accounting Transaction Pattern

A structural pattern connecting a Transaction class to two Entry instances, which relate to an Account class.

Product Pattern

A structural pattern where a Product superclass generalizes Good and Service subclasses.

CRC Card Structure

Class-Responsibility-Collaboration card detailing front attributes (Name, ID, Responsibilities, Collaborators) and back attributes (Attributes, Relationships).

CRC Responsibilities

Components of CRC cards divided into knowing responsibilities (attributes) and doing responsibilities (behaviors).

CRC Collaborators

Classes that interact with a main class, classified into clients requesting services and servers receiving requests.

Class Diagram

A static model illustrating classes and their constant relationships within a system over time.

Derived Attribute

An attribute calculated from other attributes, indicated in UML notation by a slash preceding its name.

Public Visibility

Class member visibility setting where elements are fully visible and accessible from outside the class.

Protected Visibility

Class member visibility setting where elements are hidden from all classes except immediate subclasses.

Private Visibility

Class member visibility setting where elements are hidden from all other classes and denied external access.

Constructor Operation

An operation that creates a new instance or object of a class.

Query Operation

An operation that makes state information available without modifying the object's state.

Update Operation

An operation that modifies the attribute values of an object.

Changes values of some or all attributes - change status()

Destructor Operation

An operation that deletes an object instance from the system.

UML Class Representation

A three-compartment box containing class name in bold at the top, attributes in the middle, and operations at the bottom.

UML Relationship Types

Visual representations of relationships: Association, Generalization (hollow arrow), Aggregation (hollow diamond), and Composition (solid diamond).

Composition

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

UML Association Examples

Diagrammatic examples showing relationships between classes with verb labels and multiplicity values.

UML Multiplicity Notation

Symbols defining association ranges including exactly one ($1$), zero or more ($0..\text{*}$), one or more ($1..\text{*}$), zero or one ($0..1$), specified range ($2..4$), and multiple disjoint ranges ($1..3,5$).

Multiplicity

Symbols indicating the minimum and maximum times an instance of a class can be associated with another class instance.

Object Diagram

A static model showing an instantiation of all or part of a class diagram at a specific point in time.

Instantiation

The process of creating an instance of a class populated with a specific set of attribute values.