2.11. What are the UP Disciplines?
The UP describes work activities, such as writing a use case, within disciplines a set of activities (and related artifacts) in one subject area, such as the activities within requirements analysis. In the UP, an artifact is the general term for any work product: code, Web graphics, database schema, text documents, diagrams, models, and so on.There are several disciplines in the UP; this book focuses on some artifacts in the following three:
- Business Modeling
The Domain Model artifact, to visualize noteworthy concepts in the application domain. - Requirements
The Use-Case Model and Supplementary Specification artifacts to capture functional and non-functional requirements. - Design
The Design Model artifact, to design the software objects.
A longer list of UP disciplines is shown in Figure 2.7.
Figure 2.7. UP disciplines.
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What is the Relationship Between the Disciplines and Phases?
As illustrated in Figure 2.7, during one iteration work goes on in most or all disciplines. However, the relative effort across these disciplines changes over time. Early iterations naturally tend to apply greater relative emphasis to requirements and design, and later ones less so, as the requirements and core design stabilize through a process of feedback and adaptation.Relating this to the UP phases (inception, elaboration, …), Figure 2.8 illustrates the changing relative effort with respect to the phases; please note these are suggestive, not literal. In elaboration, for example, the iterations tend to have a relatively high level of requirements and design work, although definitely some implementation as well. During construction, the emphasis is heavier on implementation and lighter on requirements analysis.
Figure 2.8. Disciplines and phases.
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How is the Book Structure Influenced by UP Phases and Disciplines?
With respect to the phases and disciplines, what is the focus of the case studies?
The case studies emphasize the inception and elaboration phase. They focus on some artifacts in the Business Modeling, Requirements, and Design disciplines, as this is where requirements analysis, OOA/D, patterns, and the UML are primarily applied. |
- The inception phase chapters introduce the basics of requirements analysis.
- Iteration 1 introduces fundamental OOA/D and assignment of responsibilities to objects.
- Iteration 2 focuses on object design, especially on introducing some high-use "design patterns."
- Iteration 3 introduces a variety of subjects, such as architectural analysis and framework design.
Figure 2.9. Book organization is related to the UP phases and iterations.
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