SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

PUNTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Computer Science/IT
Eng: Adnan Mohamed Hassan
[email protected]
Chapter 5 – System Modeling
 Topics covered

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

• System modeling is the process of developing abstract models of a

system, with each model presenting a different view or perspective
of that system.
• System modeling has now come to mean representing a system
using some kind of graphical notation, which is now almost always
based on notations in the Unified Modeling Language (UML).
• System modelling helps the analyst to understand the functionality
of the system and models are used to communicate with customers.
 Existing and planned system models

• Models of the existing system are used during requirements

engineering. They help clarify what the existing system does and
can be used as a basis for discussing its strengths and weaknesses.
These then lead to requirements for the new system.
• Models of the new system are used during requirements
engineering to help explain the proposed requirements to other
system stakeholders. Engineers use these models to discuss design
proposals and to document the system for implementation.
• In a model-driven engineering process, it is possible to generate a
complete or partial system implementation from the system model.
 System perspectives

• 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.
• A behavioral perspective, where you model the dynamic behavior of
the system and how it responds to events.
 UML diagram types

• 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.
 Use of graphical models

• As a means of facilitating discussion about an existing or proposed

system
– Incomplete and incorrect models are OK as their role is to
support discussion.
• As a way of documenting an existing system
– Models should be an accurate representation of the system but
need not be complete.
• As a detailed system description that can be used to generate a
system implementation
– Models have to be both correct and complete.
Context models
 Context models

• Context models are used to illustrate the operational context of a

system - they show what lies outside the system boundaries.
• Social and organisational concerns may affect the decision on
where to position system boundaries.
• Architectural models show the system and its relationship with other
systems.
 System boundaries

• System boundaries are established to define what is inside and what

is outside the system.
– They show other systems that are used or depend on the system
being developed.
• The position of the system boundary has a profound effect on the
system requirements.
• Defining a system boundary is a political judgment
– There may be pressures to develop system boundaries that
increase / decrease the influence or workload of different parts of
an organization.
The context of the Mentcare system
 Process perspective

• Context models simply show the other systems in the environment,

not how the system being developed is used in that environment.
• Process models reveal how the system being developed is used in
broader business processes.
• UML activity diagrams may be used to define business process
models.
Interaction models
 Interaction models

• 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.
• Use case diagrams and sequence diagrams may be used for
interaction modeling.
 Use case modeling

• Use cases were developed originally to support requirements

elicitation and now incorporated into the UML.
• Each use case represents a discrete task that involves external
interaction with a system.
• Actors in a use case may be people or other systems.
• Represented diagramatically to provide an overview of the use case
and in a more detailed textual form.
 Transfer-data use case

• A use case in the Mentcare system

Use cases in the Mentcare system involving the role
‘Medical Receptionist’
 Sequence diagrams

• Sequence diagrams are part of the UML and are used to model the
interactions between the actors and the objects within a system.
• A sequence diagram shows the sequence of interactions that take
place during a particular use case or use case instance.
• The objects and actors involved are listed along the top of the
diagram, with a dotted line drawn vertically from these.
• Interactions between objects are indicated by annotated arrows.
Sequence diagram for View patient information
 Sequence
diagram for
Transfer
Data
Structural models
 Structural models

• Structural models of software display the organization of a system in

terms of the components that make up that system and their
relationships.
• 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.
• You create structural models of a system when you are discussing
and designing the system architecture.
 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.
• 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.
 Class Notation

There are three major parts of a class diagram as shown in the

image below:

Class Name
Class Attributes
Class Operations
class notion
 Class Relationships

To create a class diagram, the next step is building

relationships. There are three main types of relationships here:

Generalizations
Associations
Dependencies
 Generalizations

Generalizations are often known

as Inheritance because it links a
subclass to its superclass.

The class diagram allows a

subclass to inherit from multiple
superclasses but it can’t be used
to model interface implementation.
Checking, Savings, and Credit
Accounts are generalized by
Account
 Associations

Association shows a static relationship between two entities. The

association between a student and school is “studies”.

In aggregation, 2 classes have a whole-part relationship. For example,

if an employee does not come, the organization will remain there.

aggregation

The aggregation has another special type, called composition. In

composition, a class is strongly connected to another class that it will
stop functioning without it. For example, if an organization closes, all
employees will have to leave.
 Dependencies

Dependency shows that one class depends on another.

Change in one class will create change in another class. For
example, an employee is dependent on the organization.
UML classes and association
UML classes and association
Classes and associations in the MHC-PMS
The Consultation class

-
A generalization hierarchy
A generalization hierarchy with added detail
 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 relationship in
semantic data models.
The aggregation association
Behavioral models
 Behavioral models

• Behavioral models are models of the dynamic behavior of a 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.
• 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.
 Data-driven modeling

• Many business systems are data-processing systems that are

primarily driven by data. They are controlled by the data input to the
system, with relatively little external event processing.
• Data-driven models show the sequence of actions involved in
processing input data and generating an associated output.
• They are particularly useful during the analysis of requirements as
they can be used to show end-to-end processing in a system.
An activity model of the insulin pump’s operation
Order processing
 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.
 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.
State diagram of a microwave oven
Microwave oven operation
 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.
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.
Model-driven engineering
 Class Work
Topic Model Driven Engineering
 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.
• The programs that execute on a hardware/software platform are
then generated automatically from the models.
• Proponents of MDE argue that this raises the level of abstraction in
software engineering so that engineers no longer have to be
concerned with programming language details or the specifics of
execution platforms.
 Usage of model-driven engineering

• Model-driven engineering is still at an early stage of development,

and it is unclear whether or not it will have a significant effect on
software engineering practice.
• 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.
 Model driven architecture

• Model-driven architecture (MDA) was the precursor of more general

model-driven engineering
• 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.
 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.
 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.
 Adoption of MDA

• A range of factors has limited the adoption of MDE/MDA

• Specialized tool support is required to convert models from one level
to another
• There is limited tool availability and organizations may require tool
adaptation and customisation to their environment
• For the long-lifetime systems developed using MDA, companies are
reluctant to develop their own tools or rely on small companies that
may go out of business
 Adoption of MDA

• Models are a good way of facilitating discussions about a software

design. Howeverthe abstractions that are useful for discussions may
not be the right abstractions for implementation.
• For most complex systems, implementation is not the major problem
– requirements engineering, security and dependability, integration
with legacy systems and testing are all more significant.
 Adoption of MDA

• The arguments for platform-independence are only valid for large,

long-lifetime systems. For software products and information
systems, the savings from the use of MDA are likely to be
outweighed by the costs of its introduction and tooling.
• The widespread adoption of agile methods over the same period
that MDA was evolving has diverted attention away from model-
driven approaches.
 Key points

• A model is an abstract view of a system that ignores system details.

Complementary system models can be developed to show the
system’s context, interactions, structure and behavior.
• Context models show how a system that is being modeled is
positioned in an environment with other systems and processes.
• Use case diagrams and sequence diagrams are used to describe
the interactions between users and systems in the system being
designed. Use cases describe interactions between a system and
external actors; sequence diagrams add more information to these
by showing interactions between system objects.
• Structural models show the organization and architecture of a
system. Class diagrams are used to define the static structure of
classes in a system and their associations.
 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.