Organization

The book follows the normal analysis "design" implementation approach followed by most development projects. The first chapter identifies the fundamental concepts of objects and real-time systems. The next two discuss analysis the identification and specification of the problem to be solved. Analysis is divided into two portions: black-box requirements analysis using context diagrams, use cases and scenarios (Chapter 2), and capturing the key concepts and their relationships from the problem domain (Chapter 3).

Design follows analysis and adds details as to how the analysis model should be implemented. Design is broken up into three parts, each taken up in a separate chapter Architectural, Mechanistic, and Detailed design. The parts differ in the scope of their concerns. Architectural design deals with very broad scope strategic decisions, such as tasking models and inter-processor design. Mechanistic design focuses on how groups of object collaborate together to achieve common purposes. Both architectural and mechanistic design chapters include a number of patterns that have been found generally applicable in real-time systems. Finally, detailed design specifies the internal structure and function of individual objects.

Throughout the book, the UML notation is introduced where and as needed. However, a notational summary is provided in the appendix so that this book can continue to serve as a reference guide as your projects evolve.