Messages

166

Uml Process / Re: Is this reasonable?

« on: December 20, 2004, 12:48:48 pm »

I completely agree Thomas.  Most companies have a hard time bridging the gap from revenue/profit goals to actual product requirements.  It is often left up to the development group to set their own goals.  Being a developer myself, I hate to admit it, but that rarely works.  Nothing beats good market research in defining requirements.  Too often, developer driven products completely miss the mark.  I like to break down my requirements stages as follows  (A little different than you said it):


Why?
  - Describes the high level goals and ties the project to corporate milestones/mission.  Clearly defines the market needs that are driving the new project.

What?
   - High level plan of attack.  Proposed solutions to satisfy market needs.  (Implementation goals).

How?
    - Detailed product requirements.  Describes the new features/products required.  (Use cases come in here).

So, in my case.  Use Cases are the realization of the Goals and plans defined to satisfy the market needs.

167

Uml Process / Re: Use case -> scenario -> sequence advice

« on: December 15, 2004, 05:51:51 pm »

You caught me angel.  I learned most of my use case analysis from Craig Larman's: "Applying UML and Patterns" book.  He uses Cockburn's techniques.  His book is a very nice UML and OO design for dummies, (like me).   reddog, you should check it out.

168

Uml Process / Re: Use case -> scenario -> sequence advice

« on: December 15, 2004, 10:50:38 am »

It seems things like add, edit, list, ... would be more related to independent uses.  A use case is used to describe a single function the system provides for an actor.  So, I am not sure your example is the same as what I was sugggesting.  Here's an example:  The Add new user use case could have alternate path scenarios such as:

1)  Database error
2)  User already exists
3)  Connection problems
4)  User aborts
.
.
.

What you do in these scenarios all relate to the same use case.  But, trying to show all of them in one sequence can get very messy.  I was recommending that you try and design sequence diagrams for each scenario instead of one that handles all scenarios for a single use case.  (It depends on how complicated your alternate path processing is).

169

Uml Process / Re: Use case -> scenario -> sequence advice

« on: December 14, 2004, 09:04:22 am »

As you sort out your use cases and scenarios be careful when taking the next step to sequence diagrams.  Don't get hung up on the implementation details when drawing your diagrams.  Instead focus on flow and relationships.  Also, don't try and show so much in one sequence diagram.  If you do all of your basic path and alternate path scenarios correctly, each scenario can be documented in a seperate sequence diagram very simply.   I personally don't like diagrams with tons of conditionals or opt fragments all over the place.  They get to hard to manage.

170

Uml Process / Re: Sequence diag, conditions and attribute access

« on: December 06, 2004, 11:06:47 am »

For me, multiple inline fragments can get annoying to work with.  Things get messy when you have to start moving messages around.  So, for simple if type logic, I prefer just setting a condition on the message.

171

Uml Process / Re: state machine model problem

« on: November 10, 2004, 12:42:07 pm »

Would using multiple state transitions with guards on only one set of states be any better?  (I am not sure what are the valid transitions)

172

Uml Process / Re: Class Diagrams - use of packages

« on: October 04, 2004, 05:09:11 pm »

I do this sometimes too.  But, I always make sure that each sub-package still shows the animal - duck relationship by including a seperate diagram in the package with a linked element of the parent class.   By doing this you can go down N-Levels and still maintain the proper relationships.

The only reason I add the additional package/diagram is because sometimes my class hierachy can get a little busy to show the entire thing in one diagram.    

173

Uml Process / Re: RUP

« on: August 18, 2004, 01:17:25 pm »

Piffle to you too, Bruce  

I am also new to these design process/frameworks and am looking to implement some of their best pieces into a process we have already working.  (Or more accurately limping along).   Which do you recommend to look at first?  Any good books to recommend?

Edit:

I should have added we are a group of software developers that work on projects that are fairly short in duration. (6 - 18 months of effort).  We usually work in small teams of 3 - 15 developers/designers.  But, the team can be spread out across a couple of different locations.  (Even countries in some cases).

174

Uml Process / Re: Generalization Tree

« on: August 13, 2004, 01:25:45 pm »

Right click on each Generalization and then select Tree Style.

175

Uml Process / Re: What is the Diff b/w a Lifeline and an Object

« on: August 09, 2004, 05:12:30 pm »

A lifeline can be used as a general placeholder when there is no classifier for the object.  The intention of sequence diagrams are to model interactions between objects.  So, unless you are modeling something that doesn't have any classes already defined, I'd recommend always using an object.