SOFTWARE DESIGN (SWD392)

CH07 – STATIC MODELING

 Main Contents
• Overview
• Association Between Classes
• Composition & Aggregation Hierarchies
• Generalization/Specialization Hierarchy
• Static Modeling & the UML
• Context Modeling
• Static Modeling of Entity Classes

2 / 26
 Overview
• The static model
– Addresses the static structural view of a problem,
which does not vary with time
– Describes the static structure of the system being
modeled, which is considered less likely to change
than the functions of the system
– Defines the classes in the system, the attributes of
the classes, the relationships between classes, and
the operations of each class
• Static modeling refers to the modeling process
and the UML class diagram notation is used to
depict the static model
3 / 26
 Overview
Objects and Classes

• Objects represent ‘’thing’’ in real world

– Provide understanding of real world
– Form basis for a computer solution
• An Object (object instance) is a single ‘’thing’’
– E.g., an account, an employee
• A Class (object class) is a collection of objects
with the same characteristics
– E.g., account, employee
• Attribute
– Data value held by objects in class
– E.g., account number, balance
4 / 26
 Overview
Objects and Classes

5 / 26
 Overview
Static Modeling

• Define structural relationships between classes

– Depict classes and their relationships on class diagram
• Relationships between classes
– Associations
– Composition / Aggregation
– Generalization / Specialization
• Static Modeling during Analysis
– System Context Class Diagram: depict external classes
and system boundary
– Static Modeling of Entity classes: persistent classes
that store data

6 / 26
 Association Between Classes
• An association defines a relationship between two or more
classes, denoting a static, structural relationship between
classes.
– I.e: Employee Works in Department, where Employee and
Department are classes and Works in is an association.
– The classes are nouns, whereas the association is usually a verb or
verb phrase.
• A link is a connection between instances of the classes
(objects) and represents an instance of an association
between classes
– I.e: Jane Works in Manufacturing,
– Jane is an instance of Employee and Manufacturing is an instance of
Department.
– A link can exist between two objects if, and only if, there is an
association between their corresponding classes.
7 / 26
 Association Between Classes
UML Notations 1/2

8 / 26
 Association Between Classes
UML Notations 2/2

Associations
on a class
diagram

Class
9 / 26 attributes
 Association Between Classes
Ternary & Unary Associations
• A ternary association is a three-way association among classes.
• A unary association, also referred to as a self-association, is an
association between an object of one class and another object
in the same class.

Person Is child of Person

Person Is married to Person
Employee Is boss of Employee

The Buyer negotiates a price with the

Seller through an Agent

10 / 26
 Association Between Classes
Association Classes

An association class is a class that models an association

between two or more classes.
• The attributes of the association class are the attributes of the
association.
• In a complex association between two or more classes, it is
possible for an association to have attributes. This happens
most often in many-to-many associations, where an attribute
does not belong to any of the classes but belongs to the
association.

Association Class Example

Project Is staffed by Employee; Employee Works on Project
11 / 26
 Composition & Aggregation Hierarchies

Composition & aggregation hierarchies address a class

that is made up of other classes
– Special forms of a relationship in which classes are
connected by the whole/part relationship
– The relationship between the parts and the whole is an Is
part of relationship

Relationship
Characteristics

12 / 26
 Composition & Aggregation Hierarchies
Composition Relationship
In composition relationship, the part objects are
created, live, and die together with the whole.
The part object can belong to only one whole.

13 / 26
 Composition & Aggregation Hierarchies
Aggregation Hierarchy
The aggregation hierarchy is a weaker form of
whole/part relationship.
Part instances can be added to and removed
from the aggregate whole. For this reason:
• Aggregations are likely to be
used to model conceptual
classes rather than physical
classes.
• A part could belong
to more than one
aggregation
14 / 26
 Generalization/Specialization Hierarchy

• Some classes are similar but not identical. They have

some attributes in common and others that are
different
– Common attributes are abstracted into a generalized
class, which is referred to as a superclass
– The different attributes are properties of the specialized
class, which is referred to as a subclass.
• There is an Is a relationship between the subclass
and the superclass.
– The superclass is also referred to as a parent class or
ancestor class.
– The subclass is also referred to as a child class or
descendent class
15 / 26
 Generalization/Specialization Hierarchy
Inheritance of Class Attributes/Operations

Each subclass inherits the properties (attributes,

operations) of the superclass but then extends
these properties in different ways

16 / 26
 Static Modeling & The UML
• The approach used in COMET is to have a conceptual static model
early in the analysis phase that is used to model and help
understand the problem domain.
• The initial emphasis is on modeling physical classes & entity classes
– Physical classes: classes that have physical characteristics – that
is, they can be seen & touched (users, external systems, timers)
– Entity classes are conceptual data-intensive classes that are
often persistent (long-living).

• A constraint specifies a condition or restriction that must be true

Example of
constraints on
objects Ordering in classes
association: an
example of constraint
(restriction) on an
association link
17 / 26
 Context Modeling
Context modeling explicitly identifies what is inside the
system and what is outside.
• Can be done at the total system (hardware and software) level or
at the software system (software only) level
• Helps to understand the scope of a computer system: what is to
be included inside the system and what is to be left outside the
system
A diagram that explicitly shows the border between the system
(hardware and software), which is treated as a black box, and
the external environment is called a system context diagram

18 / 26
 Context Modeling
Software System Context Diagram

A diagram that explicitly shows the border between the software

system, also treated as a black box, & the external environment
(which now includes the hardware)

19 / 26
 Context Modeling
Classes Categorization Using UML Stereotypes

• In class structuring, the COMET method advocates

categorizing classes in order to group together classes with
similar characteristics
• In UML, stereotypes are used to distinguish among the
various kinds of classes
– A stereotype is a subclass of an existing modeling element (e.g., an
application or external class) that is used to represent a usage
distinction (e.g., the kind of application or external class)
– In the UML notation, a stereotype is enclosed by guillemets («entity»).
• In software applications, a class is categorized by the role it
plays in the application («entity», «boundary», «control»)
• External classes are categorized on the basis of their
characteristics in the external environment, such as «external
system» or «external user»
20 / 26
 Context Modeling
Modeling External Classes 1/3
A human user often interacts with the software system by means of standard
I/O devices such as a keyboard/display and mouse

External input device: a device

that only provides input to the
system – for example, a sensor
External output device: a device that only receives output from the system –
for example, an actuator
External I/O device: a device that both provides input to the system and
receives output from the system – for example, an ATM card reader
21 / 26
 Context Modeling
Modeling External Classes 2/3

Actors and External Classes

Actors are a more abstract concept than external classes. The
relationship between actors and external classes is as follows:
• An I/O device actor is equivalent to an external I/O device
class. This means the I/O device actor interfaces to the system
via an external I/O device class.
• An external system actor is equivalent to an external system
class.
• A timer actor interfaces to the system via an external timer
class, which provides timer events to the system.
• A human user actor has the most flexibility. In the simplest
case, the user actor interfaces to the system via standard user
I/O devices, such as keyboard, visual display, and mouse

22 / 26
 Context Modeling
Modeling External Classes 3/3

Banking System software context class diagram with stereotypes

23 / 26
 Static Modeling of Entity Classes
• Entity classes: store data and provide access to this data
• During static modeling of the problem domain, the COMET
emphasis is on determining the entity classes that are defined
in the problem, their attributes, and their relationships

Entity class
model for
online
shopping
application
24 / 26
 Static Modeling of Entity Classes
Modeling Class Attribute

Each class has several attributes that provide information that

distinguishes this class from other classes. Furthermore, each
instance of the class has specific values of these attributes to
differentiate it from other instances of the class

25 / 26