Section 1.6. Views of Your Model


1.6. Views of Your Model

There are a number of ways to break up your UML model diagrams into perspectives or views that capture a particular facet of your system. In this book, we use Kruchten's 4+1 view model to help you show you how each diagram type plays a part in the overall model, as shown in Figure 1-7.

Figure 1-7. Philippe Kruchten's 4+1 view model


The 4+1 view model breaks down a model into a set of views, each capturing a specific aspect of your system:


Logical view

Describes the abstract descriptions of a system's parts. Used to model what a system is made up of and how the parts interact with each other. The types of UML diagrams that typically make up this view include class, object, state machine, and interaction diagrams.


Process view

Describes the processes within your system. It is particularly helpful when visualizing what must happen within your system. This view typically contains activity diagrams.


Development view

Describes how your system's parts are organized into modules and components. It is very useful to manage layers within your system's architecture. This view typically contains package and component diagrams.


Physical view

Describes how the system's design, as described in the three previous views, is then brought to life as a set of real-world entities. The diagrams in this view show how the abstract parts map into the final deployed system. This view typically contains deployment diagrams.


Use case view

Describes the functionality of the system being modeled from the perspective of the outside world. This view is needed to describe what the system is supposed to do. All of the other views rely on the use case view to guide themthat's why the model is called 4+1. This view typically contains use case diagrams, descriptions, and overview diagrams.

Each view offers a different and important perspective on your model. If you find yourself asking, "Why do I care about this?" as you read about a particular notation or diagram, refer to the view that the diagram or notation provides to understand why it is needed.

To learn more about Kruchten's 4+1 view model, check out "Architectural BlueprintsThe '4+1' View Model of Software Architecture" by Philippe Kruchten, at http://www3.software.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/rational/web/whitepapers/2003/Pbk4p1.pdf. For an overview, visit http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/wireless/library/wi-arch11/.





Learning UML 2.0
Learning UML 2.0
ISBN: 0596009828
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 175

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