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System Context and Domain Analysis

Abbas Rasoolzadegan

2Amirkabir University of Technology, Computer Engineering Faculty, Intelligent Systems Laboratory,Large Scale Software Architecture Course, Dr. Abdollahzadeh

What this chapter will covered

How to produce several overall representations of the top-level architecture include: Context View Conceptual diagrams

Non-architectural docs: System engineering docs May be referenced in S.A. description

Analysis Overall View To gain understanding of the key entities in the system To produce other artifacts and is usually not maintained

Except for use in product families

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Conceptual Diagrams

Illustrates some of the elements of the system and relationships to external entities

Very similar to context view Capture the system and its interfaces

Less formal than Context view Can not write a viewpoint for them due to the:

Lack of formality Variability in the stakeholders Lack of specific modeling conventions

Usage To communicate with the stakeholders are not familiar with UML

notations and concepts To give newly hired employees an overview of the system scope beyond

the software developed

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Conceptual Diagrams Producer

Systems engineering organizations Illustrate a proposed functional breakdown of the system along with

some key hardware they expect to be included in the final system Marketing organizations

Communicate the functionality of the system to prospective clients of the product

Technical leaders Prepare a technical white paper intended for readers who may not

know UML …. Also to prepare a proposal where the evaluators don’t understand

UML

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Conceptual Diag.s Guidelines

Some guidelines for creating a conceptual diag.: Identify who are the stakeholders What information the view is intended to convey Analyze the level of information that must be

communicated to the intended consumer …

Before generating a conceptual diagram, be sure that a UML view won’t work just as well

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Conceptual Diag.s (Cont.)

Software architect or members of the architecture team are frequently asked to develop or support development of a conceptual diagram Exception

To prepare a technical paper for marketing purposes that will need to include conceptual diagrams

The use of conceptual diagrams should be limited to communications with individuals external to the software development team

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Example of Conceptual Diagram

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Context Viewpoint

Contains only the system, the external entities with which it interfaces, and the system’s interfaces with these external entities

Goal Create only one view (Context View) from this viewpoint that

captures all external entities and their interfaces Is the first view of the system the architecture team often will

create Can be used at several levels (System, Subsystems, …)

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Context Viewpoint (Cont.)

Can be based on information provided by The systems engineering Marketing or other sources that describe the system at a high

level The external entities along with the roles they perform

are referred to as actors Includes the interfaces between the system and external

systems The operator and system names defined by the software

architecture team will be used for all lower level design It is critical the names are carefully selected and change is

minimized

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Context Viewpoint (Cont.)

Context View in UML Use a modified use case diagram to represent a context view

The system under design is placed as a box surrounding a set of use cases for the system

The actors are then connected to the use cases and not the system

In the software architecture documents, this view should be supplemented with a table to provide a brief description of each actor (roles, responsibilities, …) and interface (performance, data throughput, protocol utilized, …)

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Context Viewpoint (Cont.)

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Banking System Context View

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Domain Analysis Techniques

Domain analysis is the process of identifying entities and abstractions related to problem domain

Three viewpoints used for domain analysis Analysis Overall Viewpoint Analysis Focused Viewpoint Analysis Interaction Viewpoint

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A Formal Analysis Technique

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Analysis Shortcuts

Most projects come with real deadlines and constraints and projects that analyze endlessly are eventually canceled

It is important to get users looking at finished products as early as possible Using a part of the system will make users recognize missing

functions Approaches

Prioritization of use cases Use analysis patterns or predefined views for similar projects

has been done previously

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Analysis Interaction Viewpoint

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Collect Customer Contact Data

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Analysis Focused Viewpoint

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Example Analysis Focused View

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Analysis Overall View

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ExampleAnalysis Overall View

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Reference

Jeff Garland, Richard Anthony, Chapter 6 of Book entitled “Large-Scale Software Architecture”.

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Conclusion