Introduction

A domain model is widely used as a source of inspiration for designing software objects, and will be a required input to several subsequent artifacts discussed in this book. Therefore, it is important to read this chapter if the subject of domain modeling is unfamiliar.

A domain model illustrates meaningful (to the modelers) conceptual classes in a problem domain; it is the most important artifact to create during object-oriented analysis.[1] This chapter explores introductory skills in creating domain models. The following two chapters expand on domain modeling skills—adding attributes and associations.

[1] Use cases are an important requirements analysis artifact, but are not object-oriented. They emphasize a process view of the domain.

Identifying a rich set of objects or conceptual classes is at the heart of object-oriented analysis, and well worth the effort in terms of payoff during the design and implementation work.

The identification of conceptual classes is part of an investigation of the problem domain. The UML contains notation in the form of class diagrams to illustrate domain models.

Key Idea

A domain model is a representation of real-world conceptual classes, not of software components. It is not a set of diagrams describing software classes, or software objects with responsibilities.


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