uml-business-profile-based business modeling in iterative and incremental software development

UML-BUSINESS-PROFILE-BASED BUSINESS MODELING

IN ITERATIVE AND INCREMENTAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Dražen Brđanin, Slavko Marić [email protected] [email protected]

Faculty of Electrical Engineering Banja Luka

4th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse

Engineering” Zagreb, 06-10.09.2004.

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Dražen Brđanin, Slavko Marić

UMUML-BUSINESS-PROFILE-BASED BUSINESS MODELINGL-BUSINESS-PROFILE-BASED BUSINESS MODELING I IN N

ITERATIVEITERATIVE AND INCREMENTALAND INCREMENTAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENTSOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

This presentation includes: review of present business modeling techniques based on

UML: standard UML, UML extensions, UML business profile.

one proposal for UML-business-profile-based business modeling:

business use case model – exterior view to business domain business use case diagrams, textual description of business use cases, high level business activity diagrams.

business object model – interior view to business domain detailed business activity diagrams, business sequence diagrams, business object diagrams.

static aspect of business modeling in iterative-incremental software development,

dynamic aspect of business modeling in iterative-incremental software development.

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UMUML-BUSINESS-PROFILE-BASED BUSINESS MODELINGL-BUSINESS-PROFILE-BASED BUSINESS MODELING I IN N ITERATIVEITERATIVE AND INCREMENTALAND INCREMENTAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENTSOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Business systems complex (sometimes large-scale) systems that offer to

customers/users desired products/services. they are characterized by appropriate organizational structure and

business processes to satisfy customers/users . Business process - specific sequence of spatio-temporal activities which has begin and end, as well as clearly defined goal, inputs and outputs. Organizational structure – mutual connectivity of human and material resources required for successful business process realization.

Business domain totality consists of customers/users, organizational structure and

business processes in particular business system

Business modeling discipline that deals with modeling of business domain

Business model abstraction of business system parts and their relationships authors focus on Business Process Modelling – BPM

Business modeling

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Business modeling (continued)

Motives for business modeling better understanding of key concepts in present business processes, base for information system development, base for improvement of present business structure and

organization, presentation of proposed reconstruction in present business

processes, experimental check through different types of simulation...

Goals of business modeling Business Process Improvement - BPI, Business Process Reengineering - BPR.

Types of business modeling modeling of present state - "as-is" model, modeling of proposed state - "to-be" model.

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Complete business model view in business domain from different

perspectives, it’s result of different aspects of

analysis in business domain – each view is represented with single or more different diagrams

aspects of analysis concept

the highest apstraction level view of the business domain where the problems are ilustrated and the goal system architecture is described

structure organizational structure of business

system process

business activities in the system behaviour

interactions between resources – workers and objects

Business model structure unique model (Penker, Eriksson), two models (UML standard).

business domain concept

structure

process

behaviour

Fig. 1. Aspects of business domain analysis.

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Business modeling role in information system development

usually prephase or first phase in IS development (eg. RUP) business model

is used for system requirements identification, serves for identification of the most suitable IS architecture for

the particular business domain

Business modeling tasksDuring business modeling we must identify:

processes and activities in particular processes, actors, process initiators, process goals and results, required resources (human, material and nonmaterial), process rules and constraints, automatization level of present processes, responsibilities for particular activities, possibilities that some alternate activities can be chosen, manners for efficiency improvement and augment in present

processes, etc.

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UML

UML is graphic language for visualization, specification, design and documenting of software systems, but nonsoftware systems too.

UML has rich notation and semantics thanks to totality of the best engineering techniques (Booch, OMT, OOSE) which are successfully proved in modeling large-scale and complex systems, as well as it offers possibilities to use and integrate different concepts of IS analysis and design.

leading modeling language (implemented in many CASE tools),

de facto industrial standard for software modeling (ISO ?)

standard UML is open system – it’s possible to: extend base concept with user extensions, or specialize base concept in particular domain by introducing

profile.

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PROPROduring the whole cycle of IS development, from business modeling to software implementation and transition in business domain, harmonized notation will be used

transition from business models to system UML models will be easier

possibilities for extending, adopting and specialization of standard UML

CONTRACONTRAtoo rich OO notation (not optimal and not adequate for business modeling)

traditional techniques and notations are more popular

there is no standard for business modeling based on UML standard UML, UML extensions, UML profile.

UML and business modeling

UML (industrial standard)+

languagelanguage for businessfor business model modelinging

business modeling(first phase in IS development)

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BM based on standard UML

too rich OO notation, not optimal and not adequate for business modeling

combination with other approaches and notations, such as IDEF, etc.

Example: integration of business models and system UML models within Popkin Software based on hierarchical decomposition to elementary processes which are transferred to system use cases

Advantages: hierarchical decomposition which solves complexity problems.

Disadvantages: heterogeneous and not harmonized notation, impossible to deal with resources, decisions, as well as it is static system model.

A0

decomposition diagram

A1 A2 AN

A21 A22

Ai Aj Am EVENT RESULT

RESULT

RESULT

process flow diagram

Ai

Aj

Am

system use cases

A0

context diagram

Fig. 2. Integration of business model and system UML model.

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BM based on UML extensions

UML extensions are mechanisms for extending base UML concept to be possible specific details modeling without changing entire language.

Extension can be realized by using: stereotypes, tagged values and

constraints.

Several extensions for business modeling has been realized because there is no standard for business modeling based on UML, such as: Eriksson-Penker, McLeod, etc.., but neither extension didn’t solve problems of use UML for business modeling.

“Eriksson-Penker” extension The most important set of extensions

Fig. 3. Generic example of business model according to Eriksson-Penker

extension.

use case 1

use case 2

use case N

«realise»

«realise»

«realise»

Fig. 4. Implementation of business process.

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UML business profile

Profile - defined set of standard language extensions which is built in UML and specialized for modeling in particular domain.

Business profile (v1.3) specializes some base classes of standard UML by introduction of business domain specific classes.

Business model = two models

business use case model represents outside view of business system and describes business system and its relationships with the exterior systems through the business use cases

business object modelrepresents inside view of business system and in the completeness shows process, procedures, business worker's behaviour, used resources - business objects, and their relationships and organization, that goals can be realized and expected results achieved

Fig. 5. Business model defined by UML business profile.

Businessuse case model

Business object model

Business model

«UseCaseModel» «ObjectModel»

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Business use case model

Outside view of business system which describes business system and its relationships with the exterior systems through the business use cases.

Business use case is the business process, or some concrete function in business system offered to the exterior systems. Those exterior systems are called business actors. Business use case is the sequence of actions, preformed by workers in business system, and by them business system makes some concrete and recognable value.

Business use case model contains descriptions of business actors and business use cases, and their interactions too. We represent that by business use case diagrams.

Business use case model also contains realization descriptions of identified business use cases. We can document realization:

textually, and graphically (high level sequence diagram or

activity diagram)

Fig. 6. Generic example of UC diagram.

Poslovni učesnik 1

Generalizovani poslovni učesnik

proširenje

Poslovni slučaj

upotrebe

uključeni slučaj

upotrebe

<<include>>

<<extend>>

Poslovni učesnik 2

Tekstualni opis poslovnog slučaja upotrebe...

uslov nije ispunjen

Aktivnost u slučaju da je uslov ispunjen

uslov ispunjen

Tačka odlučivanja (grananje na alternativne procese)

Početak

Tačka sinhronizacije (grananje na konkurentne procese)

Kraj procesa

Aktivnosti A1 i A2 izvode se konkurentno sa aktivnošću B

Tačka sinhronizacije (spajanje konkurentnih procesa)

Tačka spajanja alternativnih procesa

Prva aktivnost u procesu

Završna aktivnost

Aktivnost u slučaju da uslov nije ispunjen

Aktivnost A1 Aktivnost B

Aktivnost A2

Fig. 7. Generic example of high-level activity diagram.

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Inside view of business system and in the completeness shows process, procedures, business worker's behaviour, used resources - business objects, and their relationships and organization, that goals can be realized and expected results achieved Business object model includes:

detailed activity diagrams, interaction diagrams, and object diagrams.

Detailed activity diagram high level activity diagram

completed by workers' responsibilities, used objects and object flows

Responsibility areas of involved workers are emphasized by swimlanes

activity diagram is procedurally (algorithmic) oriented and it is not appropriate for OO analysis and design

Poslovni učesnik Neka druga organizaciona jedinica

Interni radnik Poslovni učesnik Radnik na slučaju

zahtjev nepotpun

zahtjev potpun

Objekat (npr. zahtjev)

Odbijeni zahtjev

Vraćanje Konkurentna aktivnost (npr. priprema dokumentacije)

Pripremljena dokumentacija

Konačni proizvod

Završna aktivnost (npr. slanje, arhiviranje)

Konačni proizvod

Prijem

Inicijalna aktivnost (npr. podnošenje zahtjeva)

Prijem i analiza

Kompletiranje

Razrada

Fig. 8. Generic example of detailed activity diagram.

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Business object model (continued)

business object model also includes some of OO interaction diagrams:

collaboration diagram• focus on structural component of process

sequence diagram• focus on temporal component of process • messages between classes can be easy

mapped in the responsibilities (methods) during the development of system class diagram

Fig. 9. Generic example of sequence diagram.

Fig. 10. Generic example of object diagram.

business object model includes business object diagram • shows the static structure and

relationships between objects

• can be used to show organizational structure of business system

Zahtjev Predmet

Dodatni materijal

0..n

Interni radnik Radnik na slučaju

Konačni proizvod

Učesnik

1..n

1..n

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RUP – iterative and incremental approach

Today, integral IS development in "one breath" – according to the traditional waterfall model in one pass, from domain analysis to implementation in real world is impossible and actually unimaginableAn iterative approach is necessary that in sequence of iterations, better domain understanding will be achieved and risk reduced, what incrementally leads to goal system. As an example of well structured iterative and incremental process, which found wide application in SE practice, we often take the RUP.

RUP has two dimensions:

structural dimension, or static aspect of

process

represented by activities, resources and artifacts …

temporal dimension, or dynamic aspect

of processrepresented by phases, iterations, cycles …

Inception Elaboration Construction Transition

Business modeling

Requirements

Analysis and design

Implementation

Test

Deployment

Preliminary Inception

#1 Inception

#2 Const.

#1 Const.

#2 Const.

#n Tran.

#1 Tran.

#2

iterations

phases

time

activ

ities

Fig. 11. Technical perspective of RUP.

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Static aspect of business modeling

Business use case

model

Tekstualni opis

poslovnog slučaja

upotrebe...


Poslovni učesnik

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Static aspect of business modeling (continued)

Large-scale systems

great number of heterogeneous business use cases can be identified, often more than several hundreds, sometimes more than thousand. In order to get better picture of whole system and solve the problem of visualisation complexity, all those business use cases can be grouped in higher level abstraction:

business use case packageconsists of some business use

cases and appropriate relations business use case system

contain more business use case packages, single business use cases and appropriate relations Fig. 12. Transition from business models

to system models.

BUC1 BUCN

<<UseCaseSystem>> SUBSYSTEM 1

<<UseCaseSystem>> SUBSYSTEM N

<<UseCaseSystem>> SUBSYSTEM 2

<<UseCaseSystem>> BUSINESS SYSTEM

<<UseCaseSystem>> SUBSYSTEM 2.n

<<UseCaseSystem>> SUBSYSTEM 2.1

<<UseCasePackage>> BUS. USE CASE

GROUP 1

<<UseCasePackage>> BUS. USE CASE

GROUP M

BUC1 BUCN BUC1 BUCN

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Static aspect of business modeling (continued)

Transition from business models to system models

Identified business use cases, business actors, business workers and business objects can be used in transition from business models to initial system models. Business use case model is transferred in the system use case model, and business object model is transferred in the system design model. Next rules are valid during transition from business use case model to system use case model:

each business UC is candidate for system UC,each business actor is possible system actor,each worker is possible system actor.

During the transition of business object model next rules are valid:

each identified entity (worker or business object) is possible system class,

andeach message in sequence diagram is possible member function (method) of system class.

Fig. 13. Transition from business models to system models.

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Dynamic aspect of business modeling

IS lifecycle isn't an integral process, but process divided into more cycles, where each cycle deals with the new product generation. Development cycle consists of four phases: inception, elaboration, construction and transition. Each phase ends at the point where some great decision must be done, or some great goal(s) achieved. Those points we call milestones.

INCEPTION Inception phase requests from

business modeling that makes adequate base for the specification of functional and non-functional system requirements.

All exterior entities (business actors) and business use cases must be identified, and nature of their interactions high-level-described. Business use case model must be realized in completeness.

Inception phase can be done in one iteration (so called preliminary iteration). However, in case of the large scale systems it is recommended to preform business modeling in several iterations – one subsystem per iteration. Dependent on the team dimension and experience, iterations can be parallely preformed

Fig. 14. Business model in inception phase.

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Dynamic aspect of business modeling (continued)

ELABORATION In elaboration phase, realized

business object model is required from business modeling workflow.

For all business use cases we must realize detailed activity diagrams as base for analysis and design.

Based on activity diagrams we generate sequence diagrams and object diagrams.

Business model is here finished with more than 90% of completeness.

Usually, elaboration phase is preformed through several iterations, especially in the case of large-scale business systems – subsystem by subsystem – one subsystem per iteration. Dependent on the team dimension and experience, iterations can be parallely preformed. Fig. 15. Business model in elaboration

phase.

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Dynamic aspect of business modeling (continued)

CONSTRUCTION

All features of goal system are realized, integrated in system and checked in details. Stress is put on resource management to optimise expenses and prize, quality and performances, etc. Many projects are enough large-scale so many activities can be parallel preformed and in this manner we can improve and accelerate the realization of new product versions, but that can also augment the complexity of resource management and activity synchronization.

At the end of this phase, product must be ready for the customer, actually "beta" version. This at least means that product is implemented on appropriate platform, and also written documentation and user manual are required. Evaluation criteria is stability of beta-version in real world – in particular business system.

Only some specific processes remain for business modeling workflow – processes with some errors detected during the past iterations.

TRANSITION

transfer from "labs" to real business system. Only fine tuning remains, as well as generating newer product versions and users training.

This is the last phase in the IS development and it doesn't contain business modeling activities.

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Conclusion

Although primary intended for visual modeling of software systems, thanks to business profile, UML can be successfully used for business modeling too, because of very rich notation and semantics offer possibilities for all business domain analysis' aspects.

UML based business modeling has especial importance if it's base for IS development. Then, notations for business modeling and system modeling are harmonized, and used concepts offer possibilities for easy transfer business models to system UML models.

Described approach is fully integrated in iterative-incremental model of software development, so thanks to the advantages of business modeling based on UML business profile, advantages of iterative-incremental approach are additionally augment, such as: high risk parts are discovered earlier and their elimination is easier, business process reengineering and system changes are easier to be realized, project team more and faster learns thanks to iterative approach and generally, level of quality is increased too.

uml-business-profile-based business modeling in iterative and incremental software development

Documents

business modelingbetter

uml business profile

present business processes

business object diagrams

business sequence diagrams

slavko mariumlbusiness

business domain totality

slavko mari umlbusiness