Why We Model?

Keng Siau
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
 Modeling and Model

 Modeling

 A central part of all the activities that lead up to

the deployment of good software

 Model

 A simplification of reality
 Provides the blueprint of a system
 Objectives of Modeling

 To communicate the desired structure and behavior

of the system
 To visualize and control the system’s architecture
 To better understand the system we are building
 To serve as a template that guide us in constructing
a system
 To expose opportunities for simplification and
reuse
 To document the decisions made
 To manage risk
 Principles of Modeling

 The choice of what models to create has a

profound influence on how a problem is
attacked and how a solution is shaped

 Every model may be expressed at different

levels of precision
 Principles of Modeling

 The best models are connected to reality

 No single model is sufficient. Every

nontrivial system is best approached
through a small set of nearly independent
models
 Traditional vs.
Object-Orientated Approach
 Traditional view
 an algorithm perspective
 main building block is the procedure or
function

 OO view
 main building block is the object or class
 an object is a thing
a class is a description of a set of common objects
 Object

 Every object has

 Identity
 you can name it or distinguish it from other objects
 State
 there’s generally some data associated with it
 Behavior
 you can do things to the object
 the object can do things to other objects
 Purpose of UML

 To support object-oriented systems

 visualization
 specification
 construction
 documentation