Unified Modeling Language Analysis - Report Example

How Unified Modeling Language Analysis can describe Business Semantics Unified Modeling Language is a visual or graphical modeling language. Unified Modeling Language Analysis is a standardized way of representing business objects or processes in visual and graphical models. It normally uses diagram as its form of notation to represent different business entities. This form of language is also used mostly by business analyst to develop software systems for business analysis and for the developers of the system to have a different technical perspective view of the business. In the Unified Modeling Language, each of the diagram element is very well defined semantically hence is used very efficiently to describe business semantics in details. The meaning and preciseness of each diagram element is guaranteed if its semantics has been well defined. It’s also used for modeling non software systems like enterprise systems and object oriented software’s. (Oestereich, 2000) There are different reasons for modeling a business using the Unified Modeling Language. One of the major reasons is to reengineer the business meaning one has to rethink or redesign how the business operates and is able to relate with the outside world. By modeling the processes or activities of the business one can be able to understand the business easily through analysis and be able to come up with better solutions on how to improve the business activities or functions. The second reason is to make improvements to the business processes by trying to restructure how the business works and conducts itself so that to be competitive. Through modeling one can be able to come up with new structures on how he wants his business to look like and identify the main areas that one can improve its processes to become competitive in the market. Lastly, the other reason for modeling a business using unified modeling language is to automate the business processes and activities. The business need to use information technology to perform its processes, activities and to model its business. Information technology brings with it so many advantages like efficiency, simplicity and accurate data at a very high speed. Thus we can use this language to come up with a software system that will be able model the business and restructure the entire ways and procedures the business conducts its activities. Unified Modeling Language is normally used for defining workflow processes in business or enterprises. We have two ways of modeling business process in any organization. The first approach is to use the in built constructs of the language. This defines a stereotype profile that extends its subsystem to represent the organizational units of any business. The organization units like departments are divided into sub units and the sub units are also divided into smaller sub units. The sub division of the units or departments forms a tree that is more spontaneous to show the graphical representation for the organization. A unified Modeling language activity diagram describes a business process that takes place within the organization. This activity diagrams show the flow chart of activities at every stage in the organization function. The flowcharts of all the activities within the business or organization form what we call a business model. A business model is a representation of the processes and activities that the business or organization takes that that are represented graphically in form of charts. It is a very simple representation of business entities that has been simplified into a simple diagram that explains all the processes and activities that are undertaken by the business. It represents the business semantics in a very simple and short form that is easily understood by the business analysts and the relevant management in the business. An entity in this concept can be a subdivision of the organization or business that can be able to able to work together with the specific software that is being developed for that business. (Oestereich, 2000) The other approach used for modeling a business using Unified Modeling Language is the use of extension mechanism to provide a certain profile for this kind of business domain. This profile gives a common way and form of notation for modeling the business concepts and entities. It defines a method that can to alter the Unified Modeling language for expressing the business concepts. The profile enables the business knowledge or requirements to be captured using Unified Modeling Language that is more of a business oriented Language. There are no built constants of the language that can be able to capture the business knowledge or entities and thus the software has to act as the facilitator for capturing the business knowledge or processes. This language only provides the tools to analyze only a few important business features, entities or processes because other features have been reduced meaning they are not in built in the language or software. The profile describes some business or enterprise relations by use of cases that are tailored through label. These labels define how one can be able to built business models after capturing business knowledge or entities. The process and entities are modeled using the captured knowledge to be able to show how the processes take place and the different entities that may be involved in the business. They may be graphically represented through flowcharts or activity diagrams that make up a model that represents the entire organization or business. Business analyst look at this models that show the business knowledge captured and represented in an easier and understandable form. The business structure can be seen and understood easily because it has been represented in a simple format that has been modeled using this Unified modeling language. (Simon and Robin, 1998) There are several diagrams that are offered by the Unified Modeling Language that include the use of case diagrams, class diagram, object diagram, Activity diagram, sequence diagram, communication diagram, component diagram, packet diagram, deployment diagram and collaboration diagram. A case diagram includes the use of set cases that the users interact with the cases or the system. The use of case diagrams establishes the common vocabulary and also clarifies the requirements that are useful in improving the communication between the users and the system. There are several notations that are used to represent the use case diagrams that include the use of cases to be represented by the use of ellipses. In the use of case diagrams we have actors that are the users and the entities that interact with the software or the system in the business. These actors are represented by rectangle to illustrate another division or system. The other notation is the use of a frame to symbolize the system boundaries or the boundaries that make up the divisions. We can illustrate the use of case notation for a newspaper business circulation process which is accompanied by some important or common information like the name of the business, a brief description of the company, the performance goals, the benefits to accrue, the work flow or events, relationships and the activity diagrams that are involved. Use case diagrams are represented by use of case description to show the external and internal system behavior for a limited working situation that forms the view point of a user. Use cases can depend on other use cases for whatever information that they may require to share or use so that they can be able to work as one. Some labels that specify the dependencies between use cases are provided by the Unified Modeling Language. Business use cases normally describe the business processes that are involved in any business that have clearly been understood. Business actors are represented by the various types of interactors with the business system. To be able extract requirements from the Unified Modeling Language we have to organize and define the use case in a good or proper manner. For one to be able to come about a justifiable case model there are several guidelines to be followed so that to arrive to this. The first guideline is that every use case must first be defined with respect to the business that it is representing. The use case diagram identifies the business processes that are involved with their relationship with actors and entities of other use cases. The use case description will be incomplete without the use case being defined. Each use case must be defined by using one or more of the activity or state diagrams. The second regulation in defining proper use case is the use of the activity diagram to be able to show all the possible situations that are associated with the use case. The sequence and collaboration diagrams to be discussed show a single thread of execution of a diagram. One can put more than one thread on a collaboration diagram to be able to show more of the entities or processes that are involved in the business scenario. By using the activity diagram to show all the path of the processes in a business makes it easier to identify important threads involved that may be defined. To be able to trace all the associated threads in the diagram we must create hyperlinks on all paths in the diagram. (David, Timothy and James, 1997) The third regulation involved is the use of sequence rather than use of collaboration diagrams to define one path for a process in any activity diagram. The sequence diagrams are the easiest to use for those non technical analyst t be able to read. Sequence diagrams also enable the users to be able to identify the entry and exit point into and out of the process in any business or organization. One can be able to know the starting point of any processes and the ending point of the same processes in the business activities. This is very essential for the reviewers or business analyst who want to use this diagrams to analyze the business scenarios that take place because the can identify the start of any activity or process and the end of the process. The flow of any process is shown clearly from the start to the end of the same process hence a follow up becomes easy for the users. By use of the sequence diagrams one can be able to discover the objects, classes and business services that are involved in the business. This is acquiring the relevant information or knowledge that is all involved in the business from the early stage to the late stage in the business. There is a sequence of all the activity, process and services that are involved in the business from the start of it to the end of all this entities that have been involved all through in the business. The other guideline is that one must realize concrete use cases that should be used in the business scenarios that we have in hand. One can use sequence diagram to realize concrete use cases that are efficient to use so as to realize the business goals and objectives through critical analysis of the scenarios involved in that business. A good example is the illustrations of a concrete use case like manage files that could tend to mean create file, delete file or even edit the file. Some of the use cases could be abstract meaning that they may generalize on the processes or activities of a business. This process or activities could end up being broken down to sub tasks or sub processes that are more specific on the exact process or activities that take place. The use case delete file could be one of the tasks for managing the files in the business and thus when we state manage file we tend to ignore the many activities involved in managing files. The use cases should not be abstract to have a lot of meaning but should be specific on all the activities or processes that may be involved in the business. (Bass and Kazman, 1998) The last guideline that is emphasized in the use case is that the definition of the use case must always be consistent across all the diagrams involved in the business that defines it. This means that the definition used in all the use cases must always be the same and consistent in the process and activity diagrams that we have in any business model using the Unified Modeling language. A use case on a use case diagram can have other use cases and can be extended by other use cases in the same business model. It means that if we have a use case diagram using a certain use case we can have other use cases in use or we can have other use cases being used along especially where we have similar processes or activities being involved. This extended use cases may appear on the sequence diagram as object messages that will perform the requested services the same way the initial use case will perform. This means that we shall have the same name of each use case and sequence diagram having at least one message in the business model. The use case and sequence diagram will have the same message being conveyed in each process or activity in the same business semantic or structure. There will also be at least one message defining the same name as that of the extended use case. It means that the extended case and the defined sequence diagram will convey the same message when used in the same activity or process in the business model. An entity attached to a use case will also appear as an item that is being passed on one sequence diagram. It states that an entity will appear as one by being attached to a use case or when passé on a sequence diagram. (Selic and Rumbaugh, 1998) The other major issue to put in mind is to avoid any realization of relationships in any business analysis model. This realization relationships may differ on the on the context on which it’s used thus having different meaning in any business entity. In the case where we have two use cases, one of the use cases may implement the other use case when in it comes to the realization relationship. The sequence diagram may also the use case process in the case when we have comprehension of a use case by the sequence diagram. These relationships between the business processes and activities have a different meaning that depends on how and where they are used in the business models. Some of the activities may be related while other activities my not be related depending on the context in which they are being used in the model. There are activities that show some relationship in the sequency that follow because the occurrence of one activity determines the occurrence of the next activity. When using the Unified Modeling Language one should avoid this realization relationship that may bring about the different meanings in the knowledge acquired in any business. The other diagram that is offered by the Unified Modeling Language is the sequence diagram that is also mostly used in the business models. Most of the business activities or processes take place in a sequency that has the start and the end. A production company has the initial stage of getting the raw material and the final product that is expected to be produced. The system that has been developed has to acquire this information or data from the initial stage so that process the knowledge it has acquired to realize the final product. This means that all this activities are carried out in a sequence that has got the start point and the final or end point. (Novak and Gowin, 1984) The unified modeling language has been able to come up with this sequence diagrams that are able to show the sequences of any activity or process. It enables the users of the system to be able to see the flow and sequence of all the activities in the organizational structure or the business structure. Some of the processes may be related even though they are not on the same level but the follow one sequence to the other. Hence the sequence diagrams show or may express the interaction between various objects or entities of the business structure. The users are thus able to understand the interaction of this objects or entities because they follow a certain sequency that has been cleary shown in the underlying business model processes. The sequency diagram also shows how information or knowledge is relayed in the different departments of the organizational structures. Unified Modeling Language also offers another feature which is the use case descriptions which are normally written in English. These are just the descriptions of the specific business processes which are often familiar to the users in their view. These use case descriptions just enhance the understanding or comprehension of the specific business processes that may be involved in any business model. Some of this description words may be jargons or technical words that may not be understood easily due to lack of explanation and hence the users may not understand the business process that is involved properly. The state descriptions should be simple and understandable to all users of the system so that the business process can be easily identified. No two Use Cases should have the same description in any business model for one to realize the relationship between different entities and for there to be some consistency in the business processes. Each Use Case should have its own description that can easily be understood by the users of the system because the business processes also differ. (Bass and Kazman, 1998) Class diagrams are also offered by the Unified Modeling Language and they require the knowledge of the syntax of this language. They have the ability to discover class relationship structures by the use of the Case tools. This requires users, analyst, designers and experts with very high comprehensibility of the Unified Modeling Language syntax and object oriented programming so that they can be able to come up with this class diagrams. The users and programmers should be aware of the different business classes or processes category that are involved in any business model. The business processes and entities are divided into categories or classes that are later represented as diagrams in the business structure or semantics. Classes could be formed by those business processes that are almost similar or are related in some way in their entity. These diagrams are also classified according to those entities that have the same syntax or almost similar syntax in a way. Business processes that follow under a certain category in the operations of the business can be termed to be in one category or class and thus they will be in one class diagram. The users will be able to see clearly the relationship that this processes or entities hold at a certain stage in the business model. Analyst can also be able to see how this business processes affect each other or are affected by the same factors in the business structure. The Unified Modeling thus allow for those Use Case that have almost similar descriptions or those processes that are almost similar to be grouped in one class to from a class diagram. This class diagrams must have some similarity in their syntax and structure. The Unified Modeling Language also has the state diagram that have specialized and more complex syntax than even the class diagrams. The state diagram are so complex that they require trained end users or analysts that have specialties in analyzing this business structures by use of Unified Modeling Language. Some of the business processes change with time while other processes are static throughout the lifetime of the business model. This processes that keep on changing overtime can be grouped together to form dynamic state diagram that comprises of those processes that keep changing. Their syntax should be comprehensible to the users on how they keep on changing and they can be analyzed even by the changes they undergo. Those that do not change are more easily understood and analyzed but they also have to have almost similar entities or syntax. The processes are static throughout the analysis of the business model like the fixed prices of value added tax for goods may remain constant for certain years of a business operation. All those prices that are static could be grouped in the same State diagram in any business model. In conclusion Unified Modeling Language plays a major role in analyzing and describing the business structures using various diagrams and objects. The processes and activities form the basis for analyzing any business model using their entities and relationships to each other. The system is able to capture this processes, activities and knowledge to represent them in an analyzed form that is easily understood by the users or business analysts. The information analyzed may be represented graphically or in form of objects that are easily understood by the users. This has greatly improved the description of any business model using the Unified Modeling Language analysis. (Baker, 1997) Read More