University of Cagayan Valley

Tuguegarao City, Cagayan

COLLEGE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

First Semester, SY 2020-2021

PRELIM COVERARGE

MODULE No. 4
TITLE: System Modeling
OVERVIEW System modeling is the process of developing abstract
models of a system, with each model presenting a different
view or perspective of that system. It is about representing a
system using some kind of graphical notation, which is now
almost always based on notations in the Unified Modeling
Language (UML). Models help the analyst to understand
the functionality of the system they are used to
communicate with customers.

LEARNING OUTCOMES  Understand the different perspective of a system.

 Know the use of context and process models
LEARNING OBJECTIVES At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:
 Know how to create a use case description in a tabular
form or in a graphical form.

Models can explain the system from different perspectives:

 An external perspective, where you model the context or environment of the system.
 An interaction perspective, where you model the interactions between a system and its
environment, nor between the components of a system.
 A structural perspective, where you model the organization of a system or the structure of
the data that is processed by the system.
 A behavioral perspective, where you model the dynamic behavior of the system and how
it responds to events.

Five types of UML diagrams that are the most useful for system modeling:

1. Activity diagrams, which show the activities involved in a process or in data processing.
2. Use case diagrams, which show the interactions between a system and its environment.
3. Sequence diagrams, which show interactions between actors and the system and between
system components.
4. Class diagrams, which show the object classes in the system and the associations between
these classes.
5. State diagrams, which show how the system reacts to internal and external events.

 Models of both new and existing system are used during requirements engineering.
 Models of the existing systems help clarify what the existing system does and can be
used as a basis for discussing its strength and weaknesses. These then lead to
requirements for the new system.
 Models of the new system are used during requirements engineering to help explain the
proposed requirements to other system stakeholders. Engineers use these models to
discuss design proposals and to document the system for implementation.

Context and process models

Context models are used to illustrate the operational context of a system-they show what lies
outside the system boundaries. Social and organizational concerns may affect the decision on
where to position system boundaries. Architectural models show the system and its relationship
with other systems.

System boundaries are established to define what is inside and what is outside the system. They
show other systems that are used or depend on the system being developed. The position of the
system boundary has a profound effect on the system requirements. Defining a system boundary
is a political judgment since there may be pressures to develop system boundaries that
increase/decrease the influence or workload of different parts of an organization. Context models
simply show the other systems in the environment, not how the system being developed is used
in that environment. Process models reveal how the system being developed is used in broader
business processes. UML activity diagrams may be used to define business process models.

The example below shows a UML activity diagram describing the process of involuntary
detention and the role of MHC-PMS (mental healthcare patient management system) in it.

Types of interactions that can be represented in a model:

interaction is important as it helps to identify user requirements.

-to-system interaction highlights the communication problems that may
arise.
ly
to deliver the required system performance and dependability.

Use cases were developed originally to support requirements elicitation and now incorporated
into the UML. Each use case represents a discrete task that involves external interaction with a
system. Actors in a use case may be people or other systems. Use cases can be represented using
a UML use case diagram and in a more detailed textual/tabular format.
Simple use case diagram:

UML sequence diagrams are used to model the interactions between the actors and the objects
within a system. A sequence diagram shows the sequence of interactions that take place during a
particular use case or use case instance. The objects and actors involved are listed along the top
of the diagram, with a dotted line drawn vertically from these. Interactions between objects are
indicated by annotated arrows.
Structural models

Structural models of software display the organization of a system in terms of the components
that make up that system and their relationships. Structural models may be static models, which
show the structure of the system design, or dynamic models, which show the organization of the
system when it is executing. You create structural models of a system when you are discussing
and designing the system architecture. UML class diagrams are used when developing an object-
oriented system model to show the classes in a system and the associations between these
classes. An object class can be thought of as a general definition of one kind of system object.
An association is a link between classes that indicates that there is some relationship between
these classes. When you are developing models during the early stages of the software
engineering process, objects represent something in the real world, such as a patient, a
prescription, doctor, etc.

Generalization is an everyday technique that we use to manage complexity. In modeling

systems, it is often useful to examine the classes in a system to see if there is scope for
generalization. In object-oriented languages, such as Java, generalization is implemented using
the class inheritance mechanisms built into the language. In a generalization, the attributes and
operations associated with higher-level classes are also associated with the lower-level classes.
The lower-level classes are subclasses inherit the attributes and operations from their
superclasses. These lower-level classes then add more specific attributes and operations.
An aggregation model shows how classes that are collections are composed of other classes.
Aggregation models are similar to the part-of relationship in semantic data models.

Behavioral models

Behavioral models are models of the dynamic behavior of a system as it is executing. They show
what happens or what is supposed to happen when a system responds to a stimulus from its
environment. Two types of stimuli:

ng. Events may have associated data,

although this is not always the case.

Many business systems are data-processing systems that are primarily driven by data. They are
controlled by the data input to the system, with relatively little external event processing. Data-
driven models show the sequence of actions involved in processing input data and generating an
associated output. They are particularly useful during the analysis of requirements as they can be
used to show end-to-end processing in a system. Data-driven models can be created using UML
activity diagrams:
Data-driven models can also be created using UML sequence diagrams:

Real-time systems are often event-driven, with minimal data processing. For example, a landline
phone switching system responds to events such as 'receiver off hook' by generating a dial tone.
Event-driven models show how a system responds to external and internal events. It is based on
the assumption that a system has a finite number of states and that events (stimuli) may cause a
transition from one state to another. Event-driven models can be created using UML state
diagrams:

REFERENCES:
A guide to the project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK(R) Guide. Project
Management Institute, 5th E,.2013
Prepared by:

Apriliza M. Carag, MIT