Business object-oriented analysis and design (BOOAD) methodology

In this article, we advocate the use of application-type and computation-paradigm specific, as opposed to general purpose, analysis and design methodologies for developing software systems. To motivate and justify this viewpoint, we describe an object-oriented analysis and design methodology that is tailored for software systems whose functionality is to be implemented mainly through database operations. Because business information Systems are typically in this category, the methodology is given the name Business Object-Oriented Analysis and Design methodology, or BOOAD for short. The notation, as well as the semantics of the notation used in BOOAD, is inherited from the Object Modeling Technique (OMT) of Rumbaugh, but somewhat modified through the lifting up of various notions from the object-oriented database systems. These modifications include, among others, the concept of considering classes as repositories of objects, having classes answer queries regarding the objects they contain, the concept of a transaction that can be rolled back if necessary, integrity constraints on the states of objects, and set-valued and pointer-valued attributes of objects, as well as an exception mechanism that provides support for error handling and error recovery. Object communication is mainly through events in the broadcast-receive mode, but point-to-point communication among objects and classes is also supported. A sample analysis model (student registration system) is developed to demonstrate the main concepts of BOOAD.