Java™ Programming: A Complete Project Lifecycle Guide

Java™ Programming: A complete Project lifecycle guide.

Copyright

Java™ Programming: A complete Project lifecycle guide, First Edition

by Nitin Shreyakar

Copyright © 2015 Nitin Shreyakar. All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the author.

Java™ and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc., in the United States and other countries.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

ISBN: 978-1-326-24441-5

Preface

Who Should Read This Book?

This book explains and demonstrates the fundamentals of developing an industry standard application. It provides a straightforward, no-nonsense explanation of the process of software development from inception to completion.

Although this book focuses on the fundamentals, it is not a book for learning Java language. Before reading this book, you should familiarize with the Java language and have some practical experience developing software. You also need a basic understanding of UML. If you are unfamiliar with the Java language and UML, I recommend that you read a few basic Java and UML books. You can also gain expertise by reading articles and blogs on the Internet websites.

In my initial years of learning Java, I found many basic Java learning books but could not find a single book to build an industry standard application from requirements to inception as a real life example. Hence I would like to provide fellow Java developers a stepping stone platform to build a real life commercial application.

Organization

Chapter 1 Introduction

Provide an overview of the project lifecycle using Unified Process and a foundation for developing the FX App system.

Chapter 2 Requirements

Define various aspects and processes of requirement gathering for building an industry standard application from inception.  In addition create the initial use case designs and wire frames for the screens.

Chapter 3 Analysis

Examine the requirements gathered and walks the reader to the next level of application development for analysis.  It then goes on to create basic class diagrams and packaging structure.

Chapter 4 Design

Provide an in depth examination of the system and detailed design consideration for building the application, and enable the developer to create sequence diagrams, collaboration, state, activity, deployment and detailed class diagrams.

Chapter 5 Development

Detail step-by-step explanation to develop Java software.  Every Java class is broken down to blocks of code to give a thorough understanding in design decision used to develop the software.

Online Resources

There are many online sources for information about Java.  Oracle’s official website for java topics is https://www.oracle.com/java/index.html. The Java tutorial website is http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/.

Software and Version

This book covers Java 1.7 platform.  The source code is editor independent and can be used by any industry standard editors like Eclipse and IntelliJ.

Examples developed in this book are available in the link http://www.npssolutions.com/javaprogramming/.

Conventions

Italic is used for filenames, pathnames, hostnames, domain names, URLs, e-mail addresses, and new terms where they are defined.

Constant width is used for the source code, class, variables, method names and Java keywords used within the text.

Using Code Examples

This book is here to help you learn and use java.

I appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN.  For example: Java Programming: A Complete Project Lifecycle Guide First Edition by Nitin Shreyakar.  Copyright 2015."

Comments and Questions

I have tested and verified the information in this book to the best of the ability, but if you find any errors please let us know, as well as your suggestions for future editions, by emailing to:

info @ npssolutions.com

About the Author

Nitin Shreyakar is a Java certified professional with around 18 years of experience in software design and development. Currently he is contracting in London for major Investment Banks and Finance companies. He is excellent problem solver, ability to quickly grasp complex systems and identify opportunities for improvements and resolution of critical issues. Has keen interest to develop high quality and maintainable software. When he is not developing software, he likes to spend time with family and friends to enjoy all the small and big things in life. Life is a journey, not a destination. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dedication

To my wife Prachi, and my daughter Simran, and my parents, for their love and support. This book would not have seen light without their encouragement and sacrifices – Nitin Shreyakar

1.     Introduction

Software plays an important role in our daily lives and as humans we are now very dependent on computers. In this book I describe and discuss the methods used in creating a software project from inception till the end.  The project lifecycle I will be demonstrating uses industry standard methodology, tools and software for development.

For this book the unified software development process also called Unified Process is used to develop the software.  In a nutshell, it is an iterative and incremental software development process framework.

Figure 1‑1. The Unified Process model

Let’s now take a brief look at the various features of Unified Process:

Use Case Driven

Normally the use cases are defined to capture the functional requirements.  Each of the development iteration has a set of use cases to develop, test and deploy the software.

Architecture Centric

Strictly speaking the architecture is the main focus for the project team members.  There is no single architecture model but a group of models like component and deployment for defining the architecture.

Iterative

The activity steps are iterated from requirements to implementation stage.

Risk

Fortunately the major risks are addressed in the early phases of the project life cycle.

The project life cycle can be divided into four main phases:

Inception phase: is the initial phase which is also the shortest phase of the project.  Before you invest a large amount of money and time you need valid justification to launch the project.  Initially high level project scope is defined and details of out of scope are highlighted.  It is important to determine preliminary cost and time schedule.

2.      Elaboration phase: is the fundamental part of requirements gathering.  In this phase firstly risk analyses is carried out, secondly the core technology is defined in the system architecture and finally create various UML diagrams like use case and class diagrams.

3.      Construction phase: is the longest phase of the project where major development is implemented.  In addition it also includes creating sequence, state and activity UML diagrams.

4.      Transition phase: is the last phase of the project. In this final phase minor changes are made based on the feedback received from the client and it also includes testing.

Armed with Unified Process concepts let’s move to the requirement gathering section.

2.     Requirements

The Requirements Model

Any commercial software project needs to start with a formal document created by the business analyst and signed off by the client.  It is of paramount importance to be clear and concise to be understandable by clients and developers alike.

Requirements can be gathered from the following input sources:

Clients – Arrange formal meetings for requirements gathering

Experts – Use external expertise with skilled domain knowledge

Users – Discuss with end users to understand day-to-day activities

Input documents – Scan and read range of existing documents to understand current activities

Use Case Diagram

The use case diagram captures the behavior or functionality of the system. During requirements phase a use case diagram is the