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Author Topic: ICONIX || REA  (Read 11368 times)

chaluwa

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ICONIX || REA
« on: November 05, 2008, 07:58:16 pm »
PROCESSITTIS :
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Processittis, the name I choose to call the ailment I currently suffer from, a disorder caused by the presence of several highly praised mothodologies / precesses, and the wars between them. I am quite new to all the UML, software architecture / endineering stuff and am now caught in the web of these methodologies of which two seem to tickle my fancy.

ICONIX || REA

This may not be the right discussion group for this topic and I don't intend to start another war between these two either, I am persuaded that I'd benefit immensely from the wealth of experience this community has on software analysis, design, architecture and engineering concerning the choice of a process.

I certainly know that they both have their pros and cons ...

ICONIX is said to be a "streamelined approach to UML that reliably gets projects from use cases to source code quickly and efficiently".


REA "specifies the fundamental laws of the business domain.
Knowing these laws radically enhances the application designers’ potential
to configure business solutions without omissions, and ensures consistency
of software applications from the business perspective.

Software applications based on REA contain more business knowledge
than applications developed merely from user requirements, and can
therefore advise and guide the users during development and configuration,
without restricting the end-users at runtime".

I think I am drawn to REA, it sounds like it can be a super set (because am a perfectionist, a high one, doesn't make me near perfect though)

I really need your pragmatic opinions on this. Cheers and thanks for your support so far.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2008, 08:10:04 pm by chaluwa »
Charles Opute Odili
Xchequer Nigeria

jjyoung

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Re: ICONIX || REA
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2008, 11:59:49 pm »
I think any of the modern processes, applied properly, will get you to where you want to go.  The more significant issue is how the process fits into an organization.  I'm not familiar with REA, but after investigating various processes it seems that some of them are geared to larger or smaller organizations.  For instance XP is not suitable for large organizations that need good documentation.  RUP is harder to apply in a small organization, but can be done if you use a smaller subset of it.  If you learn HOW to apply a specific process well, then it's easier to make the transition to other processes.

More to your question, the separation of the business domain from the implementation domain is a design skill, not a process attribute.  This involves being scrupulous about not allowing your implementation details to crop into your design, and is something that can be difficult to achieve in the beginning.  ICONIX provides you the capability to do that.  It all depends on your skill at performing analysis.  One thing to remember, just because you're modeling in the business domain doesn't mean you're not specifying real classes, object, associations, etc.

The other thing to keep in mind is that most of the analysis/design methods like using Use Cases as a start to identity objects and interactions, and are an aid because we as humans tend to think in functional terms.  This allows you to perform functional analysis, which you then start and then to organize it in OO terms.  If you concentrate on Business Use Cases and don't allow implementation details to creep into them you'll end up with a more business specific Analysis model.