UML CLASS DIAGRAMS
TechM Internal
Basics of UML Class Diagrams
What is a UML class diagram? Imagine
you were given the task of drawing a
family tree. The steps you would take
would be:
Identify the main members of the family
Identify how they are related to each other
Find the characteristics of each family
member
Determine relations among family members
Decide the inheritance of personal traits and
characters
TechM Internal
Basics of UML Class Diagrams
A UML class diagram is similar to a family tree.
A class diagram consists of a group of classes and
interfaces reflecting important entities of the
business domain of the system being modeled, and
the relationships between these classes and
interfaces.
The classes and interfaces in the diagram represent
the members of a family tree and the relationships
between the classes are analogous to relationships
between members in a family tree.
Interestingly, classes in a class diagram are
interconnected in a hierarchical fashion, like a set of
parent classes (the grand patriarch or matriarch of
the family, as the case may be) and related child
classes under the parent classes.
TechM Internal
Basics of UML Class Diagrams
Similarly, a software application is comprised of
classes
and
a
diagram
depicting
the
relationship between each of these classes
would be the class diagram.
By definition, a class diagram is a diagram
showing a collection of classes and interfaces,
along with the collaborations and relationships
among classes and interfaces
A class diagram is a pictorial representation of
the detailed system design
Now you now know what a class diagram is.
But, how does a class diagram relate to the use
case diagrams thatthat we learned before?
TechM Internal
Basics of UML Class Diagrams
When you designed the use cases,
you must have realized that the use
cases talk about "what are the
requirements" of a system.
The aim of designing classes is to
convert this "what" to a "how" for
each requirement
Each use case is further analyzed
and broken up into atomic
components that form the basis for
the classes that need to be designed
TechM Internal
Elements of a Class Diagram
A class diagram is composed primarily of the
following elements that represent the system's
business entities:
Class: A class represents an entity of a given
system that provides an encapsulated
implementation of certain functionality of a
given entity. These are exposed by the class to
other classes asmethods
Apart from business functionality, a class also
has properties that reflect unique features of a
class. The properties of a class are
calledattributes.
As an example, take a class named Student.
The Student class encapsulates student information
such as student id #, student name, and so forth.
Student id, studentTechM
name,
and so on are the
Internal
attributes of the Student class. The Student class also
Elements of a Class Diagram.
A class is represented by a rectangle.
The following diagram shows a
typical class in a class diagram:
TechM Internal
Elements of a Class Diagram.
Interface: An interface is a variation of a class.
As we saw from the previous point,
a class provides an encapsulated
implementation of certain business
functionality of a system. An interface on the
other hand provides only a definition of
business functionality of a system. A separate
class implements the actual business
functionality.
An interface shares the same features as a
class; in other words, it contains attributes and
methods. The only difference is that that the
methods are only declared in the interface and
will be implemented by the class implementing
the interface.
TechM Internal
Elements of a Class Diagram.
Package: provides the ability to group
together classes and/or interfaces that
are either similar in nature or related.
Grouping these design elements in a
package element provides for better
readability of class diagrams, especially
complex class diagrams.
Figure a package
TechM Internal
Relationship Between Classes
The following table shows the kinds of relationships
between classes, their notation, and what they mean
TechM Internal
Relationship Between Classes.
TechM Internal
The UML Class Diagram in Action
Case studyCourseware Management System
In the use case lecture, we identified the primary
actors and use cases in the use case model of the
case study.
Let us recap the analysis that was performed when
the use case model was designed.
The following terms and entities specific to the
system were identified from the problem statement:
Courses and Topics that make up a course
Tutors who teach courses
Course administrators who mange the assignment of the
courses to tutors
Calendar or Course Schedule is generated as a result of
the Students who refer to the Course schedule or
Calendar to decide which courses for which they wish to
sign up
TechM Internal
The UML Class Diagram in Action.
Case studyCourseware Management System
The potential actors of the system
were:
Tutors
Course administrators
Students
And the use cases of the system were:
View courses
Manage topics for a course
Manage course information
View course calendar
View tutors
Manage tutor information
Assign courses to tutors
TechM Internal
The UML Class Diagram in Action.
Identify the "active" entities in the system
Identifying classes of the Courseware Management System
So, our first list of classes in the system
appears to be:
Course administrators
Tutors
Students
Identify business domain ("passive")
entities in the system
These entities reflect the business domain and
hence are potential classes for our system.
Courses
Topics that make up a course
Course calendar generated
TechM Internal
The UML Class Diagram in Action.
So, the list the list of classes and
interfaces that we have identified in
the Courseware Management
System.
Identifying classes of the Courseware Management System
Course Administrator
Tutor
Student
Course
Topic
Course Calendar
TechM Internal
The classes that we have identified
for the Courseware Management
System also provide business
functionality related to the
application
Example the courseadministrator
class have the following functionality
(methods):
The UML Class Diagram in Action.
Identifying methods of the Courseware Management System
TechM Internal
Other classes have methods as
shown in the figure below?
The UML Class Diagram in Action.
Identifying methods of the Courseware Management System
TechM Internal
The UML Class Diagram in Action.
Identifying relationship and drawing the class diagram
TechM Internal
Other examples of Class
Diagrams
Seminar Management System
TechM Internal
QUESTIONS
TechM Internal
