Understanding the importance of object modeling in system analysis and design is easy to recognize with a basic understanding of its practical use in the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
Continue reading to find out the stages of object modeling and its importance in the SDLC.
You have probably read somewhere that object modeling sees information as a set of objects. At first, this might not make much sense, but it is easy to conceptualize if you are familiar with object oriented programming.
An object model is important for system analysis and design because it facilitates system development by identifying its classes and objects to design a system that meets customer requirements before development starts. An object model is also important because it complements an object-oriented approach to software development. The demand for a modern approach to system analysis and design made object modeling an important necessity.
Stages of object modeling
The first step in object-oriented modeling is an analysis of the system’s classes and objects along with the objects’ behavior and relationships. The next step in object modeling is designing a system based on the information gathered in the analysis stage. The final step is to develop the system using an object-oriented programming language.
Object modeling uses various diagrams to show a graphical representation of the system being proposed. Some diagrams used in object modeling include:
- Use case diagram
- Object diagram
- Class diagram
- Sequence diagram
- State transition diagram
- Activity diagram
The usefulness of the diagrams used in object modeling makes identifying a system’s objects easier because they help the system analyst think critically about the objects needed to design the system the client proposed.