SOICT

School of Information and Communication Technology

IT4082E – Introduction to
Software Engineering
09 – Requirement Modeling

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Requirement Steps

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1. What’s
modeling?
• A complicated object in the real
world, e.g., an airplane
• How can you make it?
• How can you know its design?
• …

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What is a model?

• A model is a simplification of reality.

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Why model?

• Modeling achieves four aims:

• Helps you to visualize a system as you want it to be.
• Permits you to specify the structure or behavior of a system.
• Gives you a template that guides you in constructing a system.
• Documents the decisions you have made.
• You build models of complex systems because you cannot comprehend
such a system in its entirety.
• You build models to better understand the system you are developing.

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Discussion

• How do you build a paper airplane?

• If it cannot fly, what will you do?

• What about a fighter jet?

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The important of modeling

Less Important More Important

Paper Airplane Fighter Jet

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 Model as a blueprint of a system
Approach: Floorplan
2. Design
1. Requirements

• Shall fit on given 3. System

http://wikimedia.org (CC nc-sa 3.0, Ottoklages)

piece of land.
• Each room shall
have a door.
• Furniture shall fit
into living room.
• Bathroom shall
have a window.
• Cost shall be in http://wikimedia.org
budget. (CC nc-sa 3.0,
Bobthebuilder82)
– 1 – 2013-10-21 – Smodel –

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Observation: Floorplan abstracts from, e.g., . . .
• kind, number, and placement of bricks, • water pipes/wiring, and
• subsystem details (e.g., window style),
 Model as a blueprint of a system

Floorplan as an Abstraction
Floorplan
γ
all houses

F
F •
•
• •
H

α
α

Floorplan F
•• Floorplan F denotes
denotes a set γ(F ) of houses (concretisations of F ), 11
Smodel ––

which differ,
which differ, e.g.
e.g. in
in colour
colour of bricks, or making of windows.
2013-10-21 –– Smodel

Floorplan F
•• Floorplan F represents
represents house H according to abstraction α.
2013-10-21

By adding
•• By adding information
information to F (such as making of windows),
Principals of modeling

4 fundamental principals of modeling:

• The model you create influences how the problem is attacked.

• Every model may be expressed at different levels of precision.

• The best models are connected to reality.

• No single model is sufficient.

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Principal 1: the choice of model is important

• The models you create profoundly influence how a problem is

attacked and how a solution is shaped

• In software, the models you choose greatly affect your world view

• Each world view leads to a different kind of system.

Process Model Deployment Model Design Model

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Principal 2: Levels of precision may differ

• Every model may be expressed at different levels of precision

• The best kinds of models let you choose your degree of detail,
depending on:
• Who is viewing the model

• Why they need to view it

View for Customers View for Designers

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Principal 3: The best
models are connected to
reality
• All models simplify reality
• A good model reflects potentially fatal
characteristics.

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Principal 4: No single
model is sufficient
• No single model is sufficient. Every non-
trivial system is best approached
through a small set of nearly
independent models: 4+1 View
• Create models that can be built and
studied separately, but are still
interrelated.

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Modeling tools for software requirements

Model many different aspects of software systems with the following

common tools:
• Model how data is transported and processed: data flow diagrams
• Modeling state changes of data objects in the system: finite state
machine diagrams
• Representing relationships between data objects: entity-relationship
diagrams
• Modeling interactions between users and systems: use case diagrams
and activity diagrams

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Data Flow Diagram

• DFD
• A formal way to represent how a business takes place in practice
• DFD represents business processes of a system and how data flows
are transmitted among these processes
• 2 types of processes:
• Logical process: only represents the business and does not contain details
about actual installation or implementation
• Physical process: contains additional information about real-world
implementations

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Components of a DFD

Component Main information Symbol

Process - ID
- Name (Verb)
- Description
- May have one or more incoming
data flows
- May have one or more outgoing Visio 2000 Gane Sarson
data flows DFD

Data flow - Name (noun)

- Description
- Connections between processes Name

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Components of a DFD (2/2)

Component Main information Symbol

Data store - ID
- Name (noun)
- Description
- May have one or more
Visio 2000
incoming data flows
- May have one or more
outgoing data flows
Gane Sarson
DFD
External entity - Name (noun)
- Description

Gane Sarson
Visio 2000
DFD
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Example
• A DFD represents the course registration
process
• What are
• Entities
• Processes
• Data stores
• Data flows

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Finite State Machine

• State Machine Diagram

• Goal:
• Model the state transition of a single object through a series of events
• For example: Modeling the state of a door
• Object: door
• Status: closed / opened / locked
• Events leading to state changes: Open / Close / Lock / Unlock

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Example

Discussion:
• Are all events valid
for all states?

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Components of State Machine Diagram (1/2)
Component Main information Symbol
State Name (noun)

Initial state May not have a specific name

Final state May not have a specific name

Transition Source state, target state,

event/trigger constraints
which lead to the state
changes
Self-transition Source state = target state

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Components of State Machine Diagram (2/2)

With transitions:
• Their labels represent events or triggers that, when these events or
triggers occur, will lead to a state transition

• Event generation may need to be performed under certain constraints,

then conditions will be added next to the events.

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Case study

Use a state machine diagram to model the state of the elevator

according to the following specification:
• Initially the elevator is set up on the 1st floor, status: On first floor
• The elevator can be in the state of moving up (Moving up) when there
is a command to go up (go up).
• The elevator can be in the moving down state when there is a
command to go down.
• The elevator can be in idle state when there are no requests. The
elevator cannot change state from moving up to moving down.
• After a certain period of time (timeout), the elevator will automatically
move to the first floor (Moving to first floor).

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Case study (2/2)

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Entity Relation Diagram

• ERD
• Used to model data entities and their relationships in relational
database systems
• ERD can be used to specify data requirements as well as be used in the
design phase.

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Components of ERD

Component Information Symbol

Entity Name (noun)

Relation between entities Name (verb)

Features of an entity Name of feature (noun)

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Example

• The library management system requires management of the following

data objects:
• Book: book-id, title, author, price, available
• Publisher: pub-id, address, name
• Member: member-id, member-date, expired-date, member-type, address, name
• Relationships between entities:
• Book – published by – Publisher
• Book – borrowed by – Member

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Solution

Book-id
Pub-id
Title Author

Address
Price Available
Book
Publisher
Published
by
Name
Member- Borrowed
id by

Expired-
date Member Name

Member-
Address
date Member-
type
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09 – Requirement Modeling
(end of lecture)

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