MIRPUR UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Software Design & Architecture
(Lecture # 8)
Conceptual Classes, Associations and Attributes in Domain Model
Samiullah Khan / Saba Zafar
(Lecturer)
Date: 16 July, 2020
LECTURE CONTENTS
1. Conceptual Classes in Domain Model
2. Associations in Domain Model
3. Multiplicity in Domain Model
4. Adding Attributes to Domain Model
5. Domain Model vs Design Model
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DOMAIN MODELS:
HOW TO IDENTIFY CONCEPTUAL CLASSES ?
• Searching the Requirements
• Searching the Use Case
• Using a Concept Category List
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SEARCHING THE REQUIREMENTS
• Recall that objects are nouns
• Most functions have a verb with a noun
• For example
• Record the Sale (Object Sale)
• Reduce Inventory Quantity (Object Inventory)
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SEARCHING THE REQUIREMENTS
• Watch out for adjectives
• Adjectives are attributes of objects i.e. red, sweet, technical, difficult, simple etc
• For example
• Calculate the current sale total (total is not an object)
• Cashier must log in with ID (ID is not an object)
• Display price of item (price is not an object)
• Customer selects the car and price (price is not an object)
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SEARCHING THE USE CASE
• Again recall that objects are nouns
• Most sentences have a subject, verb, and object.
• For example
• Customer arrives at POS (Objects Customer & POS)
• Customer gives a cash payment (Objects Customer & Payment)
• Known as Noun Phrase Identification.
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NOUN PHRASE IDENTIFICATION
• The fully addressed Use Cases
are an excellent description to
draw for this analysis
• Some of these noun phrases
are candidate concepts; some
may be attributes of concepts
• A mechanical noun-to-concept
mapping is not possible, as
words in a natural language
are (sometimes) ambiguous
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USING A CONCEPT CATEGORY LIST
• This is one of the best ways to identify objects.
• Already provided list of concepts
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DELIVERABLE
• After identifying concepts, we get an initial artifact known as Partial Domain
Model.
• Later, refinements are made to this partial domain model by showing attributes
and associations, hence forming a Conceptual Model.
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POS PARTIAL DOMAIN MODEL
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ASSOCIATIONS IN DOMAIN MODEL
• An association is a relationship between concepts that indicates
some meaningful and interesting connection
• The domain model is not a data model; associations are added to
highlight our rough understanding of noteworthy relationships, not
to document object or data structures.
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MULTIPLICITY
• Multiplicity defines how many instances of a type A can be associated with one
instance of a type B, at a particular moment in time.
• For example, a single instance of a Store can be associated with “many” (zero or
more) Item instances.
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POSSIBLE MULTIPLICITIES
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DOMAIN MODEL – NAMED ASSOCIATION
• Associations among the concepts can be named depending on the relationship
between two concepts
• Avoid using simple association names such as "Has" or "Uses“
• For naming an association, a verb phrase should be constructed with hyphens (-)
• The default direction to read an association name is left to right, or top to bottom
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EXAMPLE
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ADDING ATTRIBUTES TO DOMAIN MODEL
• An attribute is a logical data value of an object
• Identify those attributes of conceptual classes that are needed to satisfy the
information requirements
• For example, a Sales receipt normally includes a date and time.
• The Sale concept would need a date and time attribute.
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HOW TO SELECT ATTRIBUTES
• Keep attributes simple
• Attributes in a Domain Model should preferably be:
• Pure data values: Boolean, Date, Number, String, …
• Simple attributes: Color, phone number, zip code, universal product code (UPC), ...
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EXAMPLE
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A COMMON MISTAKE WITH ATTRIBUTES
VS CLASSES
• The most common mistake when creating a domain model is to represent
something as an attribute when it should have been a conceptual class
• As an example, should store be an attribute of Sale, or a separate conceptual class
Store?
• In the real world, a store is not considered a number or text, the term suggests a
legal entity, an organization, and something that occupies space.
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A COMMON MISTAKE WITH ATTRIBUTES
VS CLASSES
• Consider the domain of airline reservations
• Should destination be an attribute of Flight, or a separate conceptual class
Airport?
• In the real world, a destination airport is not considered a number or text, it is a
massive thing that occupies space
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DOMAIN MODEL WITH ATT. & ASSOC.
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DOMAIN MODEL VS DESIGN MODEL
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IS THE DOMAIN MODEL CORRECT ?
• There is no such thing as a single correct domain model
• All models are approximations of the domain we are attempting to understand
• The domain model is primarily a tool of understanding and communication
among a particular group
• A useful domain model captures the essential abstractions and information
required to understand the domain in the context of the current requirements
• It aids people in understanding the domain, its concepts, terminology, and
relationships
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REFERENCES
• Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, Roger S. Pressman,
Bruce R. Maxim, 8th Ed, McGraw-Hill Education, 2015.
• Object-Oriented Analysis, Design and Implementation, Brahma
Dathan, Sarnath Ramnath, 2nd Ed, Universities Press, 2014
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THANKS
