System Modeling Flashcards
Define abstraction
The act of representing essential features without including the background details/explanation.
What are graphical models used for in SWE?
- Facilitate discussion about existing or proposed system
- Documenting an existing system
- As a detailed system description that can be used to generate a system implementation
Define ‘context model’
Used to illustrate operational context of a system. It defines how context data are structured and maintained. UML is an example of a context model.
System Boundaries
Established to define what is inside and outside the system
Define Interaction Model
An overarching set of design patters that are consistent throughout an application
- Modeling user interaction
- Modeling system-to-system interaction
- Modeling component interaction
- Use case diagrams and sequence diagrams
Define an actor in a use case
An actor is a human or machine that interacts with the system
What are sequence diagrams used for?
Model the interactions between actors and objects within a system in a sequential order
Define structural models
Models that display the organization of a system in terms of the components that make up the system and their relationships
Explain the difference between static models and dynamic models
Static models show the structure of the system design
Dynamic models show the organization of the system while it is executing
Define a class diagram
Class diagrams are used when developing an OO system model to show classes in a system and its associations
Define generalization in the context of OOD
Generalization is a way to classify objects into sub-classes of more general classes
For example: Hospital doctor and general practitioner are generalizations of Doctor
Define behavioral models
Models of the dynamic behavior of a system as it is executing. Shows how the system responds to stimulus from its environment
Stimuli can be:
- Data
- Events
Describe the difference between data and event driven modeling
Data driven modeling shows how the system interacts with input data
Event driven modeling shows how the system interacts with functions and events
Define state machine models
Models of the behaviors of the system in response to external and internal events. These models show system states as nodes and events as arcs between them
Define model-driven engineering
MDE is an approach to SWE where the models instead of programs are the principal outputs of the development process. In theory, the code is then automatically generated from the models.
