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Modelling in Colour
First used on a major Java
software development project in Singapore in 1997, Peter Coad, and his
co-authors, Eric Lefebvre, and Jeff De Luca, introduced the
modelling in colour technique in their book, Java Modeling
in Color with UML,
published in 1999.
Modelling
in colour is an object
modelling
technique. It helps identify and define appropriate, problem domain
classes for
a software component, application, or system.
In a traditional, layered,
object-oriented software
component, application, or system, problem domain classes form the most
important logical
layer of the software.
In more component-based or service-oriented software, problem
domain classes help drive the definition and organisation of
business services and components. They also help drive the
design of the problem domain classes used in the internal
implementation
of a component or service.
Therefore, any patterns or strategies that enable better and faster
identification of problem domain classes are worthwhile knowing. The Modelling in Colour technique includes numerous such
strategies and patterns.
Most of my notes in this area are old issues of the CoadLetter,
TogetherSoft's old technical newsletter. However, I have started
to update and extend my notes on modeling in colour
incorporating lessons learnt from teaching applying the technique over
a number of years...
Read more...
Applying the
Domain Neutral Component
'I recently worked with a group that was struggling a little with applying the
Domain Neutral Component to their object model. This example helped clarify some
of the design trade offs involved. First, a bit of background for any that are
new to modeling in color and the Domain Neutral Component...'
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Comparing Object Models to the DNC
'How can we use the Domain Neutral Component to help us refactor an existing
object model? Maybe we have reverse-engineered an object model from an old
system, inherited an object model from a previous project or simply been asked
to review an object model. Here are a few strategies we can use ...'
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From Associations to Domain Neutral Management
'During a rather indifferent, evening meal at a 1950's style diner (yes - it
really did look like something out of the old Happy Days television series), we
discussed the correlation between the role labels that may be specified on the
end of associations in UML and the yellow Role classes found in Peter Coad's Domain
Neutral Component. The following short set of notes is the result....'
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Modeling User Roles
'A question that keeps being asked by the teams I work with is, "How do
we model the roles of employees and users of a system?" ... Here
are five strategies to consider when modeling employee and user roles.
...'
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Description Class Archetype
'...an in-depth look at one of the four class archetypes used in the 'modeling in
color' technique, the Description archetype. People often seem to become
confused by the Green and Blue archetypes. ...'
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Historic Values
'In business systems it is often necessary to remember the values of objects at
the time a business transaction took place. For example, the price of a product
may change over time and it may be necessary to remember the price used in a
sale of the product. There are two fundamentally different ways of satisfying
this requirement....'
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Party Time: What's in a Name?
'People! They make things so complicated! On bad days it can seem like the only
thing more frustrating than people, are the organizations that they have created
or for which they work:-). People and their organizations do not fit comfortably
into highly structured, logical, organized software systems. Producing software
that models people and organizations flexibly and efficiently is a challenge.
Designing a general-purpose, reusable component to do so is even more
challenging. The problem feels as if it should have a simple solution but ...'
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Party time: Modeling Legal Id's,
and Addresses
'The green class archetype in Peter Coad et al's[Coad]
Modeling in Color with UML represents a party, place or thing (PPT) where
a party is a legal entity, something or someone recognized by some court of law.
There are essentially only two different kinds of Party, individual people and
organizations. With an initial model that looks like figure 1 and the
information in the class archetype diagram shown in figure 2 we are ready to
consider party identity numbers and documents. ...'
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The Example Teaches
'Working with a team building an object model recently, I was reminded again
of the power of a good example. ...'
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More Modelling in Colour
I have started to update and extend my notes on modeling in colour
incorporating lessons learnt from teaching applying the technique over
a number of years...
Read more...
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