Re: defining quality of OOA and OOD models

Responding to Davor...

How do you evaluate OOA and OOD models? In particular what do you
perceive as a "high-quality model" for each (OOA, OOD)?

Consistency? Completeness? Expressiveness? Translatability? For
whatever you use, how do you perceive that particular criteria, for
example what is completeness with respect to OOA models and what with
respect to OOD models?

Model quality is probably best measured in terms of conformance to the practices of an established OOA/D methodology.

An OOA model is complete when it executes correctly with respect to functional requirements. The exit criteria for OOD modeling is fuzzier because one cannot validate most nonfunctional requirements without an executable in hand.


(Note, please don't equate OOA with "high-level design" for the
purposes of this post, but rather something that helps us understand
and analyze problem domain. Indicate what criteria you use for
evaluation of design models at whichever level of abstraction under
OOD)

Your statement here seems more appropriate to requirements analysis than OOA. An OOA model is a complete solution specification for functional requirements. Therefore OOA /is/ high level design. The solution specification is just independent of the computing space. IOW, in MDA/UML terms an OOA model is a software PIM (Platform-Independent Model).


*************
There is nothing wrong with me that could
not be cured by a capful of Drano.

H. S. Lahman
hsl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pathfinder Solutions  -- Put MDA to Work
http://www.pathfindermda.com
blog: http://pathfinderpeople.blogs.com/hslahman
(888)OOA-PATH



.