Higher Technological
Institute
Software Engineering -2
Dr. Sarah Ahmed
Lecture 5
1
Chapter 7 – Design and Implementation
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 2
Topics covered
Introduction
Object-oriented design using the UML
Implementation issues
Open source development
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 3
Design and implementation
Software design and implementation is the stage in the
software engineering process at which an executable
software system is developed.
Software design and implementation activities are
invariably inter-leaved.
Software design is a creative activity in which you identify
software components and their relationships, based on a
customer’s requirements.
Implementation is the process of realizing the design as a
program.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 4
Build or buy
In a wide range of domains, it is now possible to buy off-
the-shelf systems (COTS) that can be adapted to the
users’ requirements.
For example, if you want to implement a medical records system,
you can buy a package that is already used in hospitals. It can
be cheaper and faster to use this approach rather than
developing a system.
When you develop an application in this way, the design
process becomes concerned with:
How to use the configuration features of that system to deliver
the system requirements.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 5
Object-oriented design using the UML
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 6
An object-oriented design process
Object-oriented design processes involve developing a
number of different system models based on a set of
classes and the relationships between them.
They require a lot of effort for development and
maintenance of these models and, for small systems,
this may not be cost-effective.
However, for large systems developed by different
groups, design models are an important communication
mechanism.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 7
Process stages
There are a set of common activities in the object-
oriented design processes:
1. Define the context and modes of use of the system;
2. Design the system architecture;
3. Identify the principal system objects;
4. Develop design models;
5. Specify object interfaces.
Process illustrated here using a design for a weather
station.
Weather stations are deployed in remote areas.
Each weather station records local weather information and
periodically transfers it to a weather system using a satellite link.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 8
1- System context and interactions
Understanding the relationships between the software
that is being designed and its external environment is
essential for deciding how to:
Provide the required system functionality
How to structure the system to communicate with its
environment.
Understanding of the context also lets you establish the
boundaries of the system.
Setting the system boundaries helps you decide:
What features are implemented in the system being designed
What features are in other associated systems.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 9
System context for the weather station
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 10
Weather station use cases
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 11
Use case description—Report weather
System Weather station
Use case Report weather
Actors Weather information system, Weather station
Description The weather station sends a summary of the weather data that has been
collected from the instruments in the collection period to the weather
information system. The data sent are the maximum, minimum, and average
ground and air temperatures; the maximum, minimum, and average air
pressures; the maximum, minimum, and average wind speeds; the total
rainfall; and the wind direction as sampled at five-minute intervals.
Stimulus The weather information system establishes a satellite communication link
with the weather station and requests transmission of the data.
Response The summarized data is sent to the weather information system.
Comments Weather stations are usually asked to report once per hour but this frequency
may differ from one station to another and may be modified in the future.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 12
2- Architectural design
Once interactions between the system and its
environment have been understood, you use this
information for designing the system architecture.
You identify the major components that make up the system and
their interactions,
The weather station is composed of independent
subsystems that communicate by broadcasting
messages on a common infrastructure.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 13
High-level architecture of the weather station
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 14
Architecture of data collection system
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 15
3- Object class identification
Identifying object classes is often a difficult part of object
oriented design.
There is no 'magic formula' for object identification. It
relies on the skill, experience and domain knowledge of
system designers.
Object identification is an iterative process. You are
unlikely to get it right first time.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 16
Approaches to identification
Use a grammatical approach to analyze a natural
language description of the system where objects are
nouns and operations are verbs.
Use tangible things in the application domain (e.g.,
aircraft), roles (e.g., manager), events (e.g., requests),
interactions (e.g., meetings), locations (e.g., offices), and
so on.
Use a behavioural approach and identify objects based
on what participates in what behaviour.
Use a scenario-based analysis. The objects, attributes
and methods in each scenario are identified.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 17
Weather station object classes
Object class identification in the weather station system
may be based on the tangible hardware and data in the
system:
Ground thermometer, Anemometer, Barometer
• Application domain objects that are ‘hardware’ objects related to the
instruments in the system. These objects operate autonomously to
collect data and store it locally.
Weather station
• The basic interface of the weather station to its environment. It
therefore reflects the interactions identified in the use-case model.
Weather data
• Encapsulates the summarized data from the instruments.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 18
Weather station object classes
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 19
4- Design models
Design models show the objects and object classes and
relationships between these entities.
There are two kinds of design model:
Structural models describe the static structure of the system in
terms of object classes and relationships.
Dynamic models describe the dynamic interactions between
objects.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 20
Examples of design models
Subsystem models that show logical groupings of
objects into coherent subsystems.
Sequence models that show the sequence of object
interactions.
State machine models that show how individual objects
change their state in response to events.
Other models include use-case models, aggregation
models, generalisation models, etc.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 21
Subsystem models
Shows how the design is organised into logically related
groups of objects.
In the UML, these are shown using packages
Each subsystem is shown as a package
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 22
Sequence models
Sequence models show the sequence of object
interactions that take place
Objects are arranged horizontally across the top;
Time is represented vertically so models are read top to bottom;
Interactions are represented by labelled arrows, Different styles
of arrow represent different types of interaction;
A thin rectangle in an object lifeline represents the time when the
object is the controlling object in the system.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 23
Sequence diagram describing data collection
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 24
State diagrams
State diagrams are used to show how objects respond to
different service requests and the state transitions
triggered by these requests.
State diagrams are useful high-level models of a system
or an object’s run-time behavior.
You don’t usually need a state diagram for all of the
objects in the system.
Many of the objects in a system are relatively simple and a state
model adds unnecessary detail to the design.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 25
Weather station state diagram
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 26
5- Interface specification
Object interfaces have to be specified so that the objects
and other components can be designed in parallel.
Objects may have several interfaces which are
viewpoints on the methods provided.
The UML uses class diagrams for interface specification
but Java may also be used.
Chapter 7 Design and Implementation 27
Thank You
28