Part 1: Structural Modelling

COMP2111 – System Analysis and Design
Module 3: Study Materials
Analysis Modelling II
Part 1: Structural Modelling
Study Outlines
• Object with its Attributes
• Creating CRC Cards
• Structural Modelling using Class Diagram

Object with its Attributes
• System Functionality represented by Functional
models
• Structural models represent system objects and

their relationships:
– People
– Places Object
– Things
.Alan Dennis, Barbara Wixom and David Tegarden, System Analysis and Design with UML, 2015, 5th Edition, ISBN: 978-1-119-13826-6
Structural Models
• Iterative process creation “Drawn”

– Draw Conceptual and Business-centric way
– Develop a technology-centric way describing the actual
databases and files
– Add more detail in each iteration
• Build a vocabulary for analysts & users

– Lets effective communication between analysts & users
Main aim of structural models to:
 Find out the key data contained in the problem domain
 Build a structural model of the objects
Structural
Modeling
Solution Domain
Problem Domain
Fig. 1: Structural Modeling [Dennis et al. 2015]
Classes, Attributes & Operations
• Classes
People instances, places, or things
• Attributes
Features that describe an instance of a class
(an object)
• Operations
Actions or functions that a class can do
Relationships
• Describe how classes relate to one another
• Three basic types in UML
 Generalization (shows inheritance of attributes and operations,

a-kind-of relationships)
 Aggregation (assemblies, connect parts and show “a-part-of” or

“has-parts” relationships)
 Association (distinguish relationships between classes)

Object Identification
• Use-case information “Textual Analysis”

– Nouns for classes, Verbs for operations
• People provide ideas “Brainstorming”

– Develop classes (objects)
– Define(‫دد‬1‫ )ح‬Class Attributes, Class Operations and
Relationships to other classes
• Common Object Lists
– Physical things
– Incidents
– Roles
– Interactions
• Patterns
– Collaborating classes that provide solutions to common
problems (groups)
– Developed patterns provide a starting point for work in
similar domains
Creating CRC Cards
• Index cards used to document the responsibilities
and collaborations of a class
• CRC stand for Class, Responsibilities, Collaborators
• Responsibilities
– Knowing (class attributes)
– Doing—(class operations)
• Collaboration
– Objects working together to service a request (request/reply in Client-
Server)
Front-Page of CRC Card
Fig. 2: Front-Side of a CRC Card, [Dennis et al., 2015]
Back-Page of CRC Card
Fig. 5.3: Back-Side of a CRC Card, [Dennis et al., 2015]
Role and Benefit of CRC Cards
• Help find out‫كتشاف‬1‫ ا‬additional objects, attributes,

relationships & operations
• Use activity diagrams to run through the steps in

a scenario
– Identify an important use-case
– Assign roles to actors and objects
Structural Modelling using Class Diagram
• A static model that shows classes and their relationships

to one another
• Elements
– Classes
• Objects (a person, place or thing)
• Attributes (characteristics of the class)
• Operations (activities the class can perform)
– Relationships (between classes)

• Depicted as lines between classes
Attributes
• Properties of a class
– Person: last name, first name, address, etc.
– Attributes can be derived
• Preceded with a slash (/)
• e.g., age is derived from date of birth
• Visibility of an attribute:
– Restricts access to attributes to ensure consistency
– Public attributes (+): visible to all classes
– Private attributes (-): visible only to an instance of the defined class
– Protected attributes (#): visible only to an instance of the class in which
they are defined and its descendants
Operations
• Common operations are not shown
– Create or delete an instance
– Return or set a value
• Types of Operations:
– Constructor: Creates an object
– Query: Makes information about the state of an object available
– Update: Changes values of some or all of an object’s attributes
– Destructor: Deletes or removes an object
Relationships
• Represents associations between classes
• Classes may be related to themselves

– e.g., employees and managers who may be members of the
same class
• Multiplicity indicates how many of one class are related

to another class
Multiplicities (Business Rules)
Department Boss Exactly one:

A department has one and
1 1 only one boss
Employee Child Zero or more:

An employee has zero to
1 *..0 many children
Boss Employee One or more:

A boss is responsible for
1 *..1 one or more employees
Fig. 4: Multiplicities in Class Diagram, [Dennis et al., 2015]
Association Classes
• Well-known in many-to-many relationships.
• Applied to recorded “attributes” the relationship

between two classes.
– Students are related to courses; a Grade class provides an
attribute to describe this relationship
– Illnesses are related to symptoms; a Treatment class provides
an attribute to describe this relationship
Generalization & Aggregation Associations
• Generalization shows inheritance
• Aggregation shows a logical “a-part-of” relationship
• Composition shows a physical “a-part-of” relationship
Example of Class Diagram (1)
Fig. 5: Example of Class Diagram, [Dennis et al., 2015]
Example of Class Diagram (2)
Fig. 6: A class diagram for online shopping system, [Kirill Fakhroutdinov, 2019]
Simplifying Class Diagrams
• General ways of simplifying class diagrams:

– Show only concrete classes
– The view mechanism shows a subset of classes
– Packages show aggregations of classes
Steps to Structural Models
‫خطوات النماذج اإلنشائية‬
• Create CRC Cards
• Review CRC Cards & identify missing objects,

attributes, operations and/or relationships
• Create the class diagram
• Review the class diagram

– Remove unnecessary classes, attributes, operations and/or relationships
• Incorporate patterns
• Review and validate the model

Summary and Ending Points

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COMP2111 – System Analysis and Design

Module 3: Study Materials

• Object with its Attributes

• Creating CRC Cards

• Structural Modelling using Class Diagram

• Structural models represent system objects and

• Iterative process creation “Drawn”

• Build a vocabulary for analysts & users

• Describe how classes relate to one another

• Three basic types in UML

 Generalization (shows inheritance of attributes and operations,

 Aggregation (assemblies, connect parts and show “a-part-of” or

 Association (distinguish relationships between classes)

• Use-case information “Textual Analysis”

• People provide ideas “Brainstorming”

Fig. 2: Front-Side of a CRC Card, [Dennis et al., 2015]

Fig. 5.3: Back-Side of a CRC Card, [Dennis et al., 2015]

• Help find out‫كتشاف‬1‫ ا‬additional objects, attributes,

• Use activity diagrams to run through the steps in

• A static model that shows classes and their relationships

– Relationships (between classes)

• Represents associations between classes

• Classes may be related to themselves

• Multiplicity indicates how many of one class are related

Department Boss Exactly one:

Employee Child Zero or more:

Boss Employee One or more:

Fig. 4: Multiplicities in Class Diagram, [Dennis et al., 2015]

• Well-known in many-to-many relationships.

• Applied to recorded “attributes” the relationship

• Generalization shows inheritance

• Aggregation shows a logical “a-part-of” relationship

• Composition shows a physical “a-part-of” relationship

Fig. 5: Example of Class Diagram, [Dennis et al., 2015]

• General ways of simplifying class diagrams:

• Review CRC Cards & identify missing objects,

• Create the class diagram

• Review the class diagram

• Review and validate the model

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