COMPUTING SCIENCE 220
Software Engineering and Human-Computer Interfaces

Domain Model: Visualizing Concepts

Domain Model

Figure 9.1. Partial domain model - a visual dictionary

Conceptual Classes

Figure 9.5. Symbol, intension, and extension

Perspectives

The same diagramming notation may be used for three perspectives and types of models:

• Essential or conceptual perspective
• Specification perspective
• Implementation perspective

UML notation applied in different perspectives and models

Representational or Semantic Gap

Using names and information from the real world domain when creating software classes results in a low representational gap (semantic gap).

Figure 9.6. Low representational gap

Conceptual Class Identification

• use a conceptual class category list (see Table 10.1, pp. 134-5)
• identify noun phrases in textual description of a domain (e.g., fully dressed use cases)
• use analysis patterns (e.g., Analysis Patterns: Reusable Object Models by Martin Fowler [QA 76.9 O35 F69 1997])

See mapmaker strategy, p. 145.

Concept or Attribute

Store as concept or attribute

Specification or Description Conceptual Classes

Figure 9.9. Specifications or descriptions about other things - ProductSpecification

Figure 9.10. Another example - FlightDescription

Example: The NextGen POS Initial Domain Model

Figure 9.17. Initial (names-only) domain model for the NextGen POS domain