Chapter 6

Object-Oriented Design

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 1

Objectives
 To explain how a software design may be
represented as a set of interacting objects that
manage their own state and operations
 To describe the activities in the object-oriented
design process
 To introduce various models that describe an
object-oriented design
 To show how the UML may be used to represent
these models

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 2

Topics covered
 Objects and object classes
 An object-oriented design process
 Design evolution

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 3

 Simple Banking System
 The software design can be represented using
objects such as "BankAccount," "Customer," and
"Transaction." Each object has its own properties
and behaviors.
1. BankAccount: This object represents a bank
account and can have properties like an account
number, account holder name, and account
balance. It can also have behaviors such as
depositing funds, withdrawing funds, and checking
the account balance.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 4

1. Customer: This object represents a customer of
the bank and can have properties like a customer
ID, name, and contact information. It can have
behaviors like opening a bank account, closing a
bank account, and updating customer details.
2. Transaction: This object represents a transaction
between bank accounts. It can have properties like
the source account, destination account, amount
transferred, and transaction date. It can have
behaviors like processing the transaction, verifying
account balances, and updating account balances.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 5

 Example of banking system object oriented model

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 6

Characteristics of OOD
 Objects are abstractions of real-world or system
entities and manage themselves
 Objects are independent and encapsulate state
and representation information.
 System functionality is expressed in terms of
object services
 Shared data areas are eliminated. Objects
communicate by message passing
 Objects may be distributed and may execute
sequentially or in parallel
©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 7
Interacting objects

o1: C1 o3:C3 o4: C4

state o1 state o3 state o4
ops1() ops3 () ops4 ()

o2: C3 o6: C1 o5:C5

state o2 state o6 state o5
ops3 () ops1 () ops5 ()

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 8

Advantages of OOD
 Easier maintenance. Objects may be
understood as stand-alone entities
 Objects are appropriate reusable components
 For some systems, there may be an obvious
mapping from real world entities to system
objects

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 9

Object-oriented development
 Object-oriented analysis, design and
programming are related but distinct
 OOA is concerned with developing an object
model of the application domain
 OOD is concerned with developing an object-
oriented system model to implement
requirements
 OOP is concerned with realising an OOD using
an OO programming language such as Java or
C++
©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 10
Objects and object classes
 Objects are entities in a software system which
represent instances of real-world and system
entities
 Object classes are templates for objects. They
may be used to create objects
 Object classes may inherit attributes and
services from other object classes

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 11

 Objects

An object is an entity which has a state and a defined set of

operations which operate on that state. The state is represented as a
set of object attributes. The operations associated with the object
provide services to other objects (clients) which request these
services when some computation is required.

Objects are created according to some object class definition. An

object class definition serves as a template for objects. It includes
declarations of all the attributes and services which should be
associated with an object of that class.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 12

The Unified Modeling Language
 Several different notations for describing object-
oriented designs were proposed in the 1980s
and 1990s
 The Unified Modeling Language is an integration
of these notations
 It describes notations for a number of different
models that may be produced during OO
analysis and design
 It is now a de facto standard for OO modelling

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 13

Employee object class (UML)
Employee
name: string
address: string
dateOfBirth: Date
employeeNo: integer
socialSecurityNo: string
department: Dept
ma nager: Employee
salary: integer
status: {current, left, retired}
taxCode: integer
. ..
join ()
leave ()
retire ()
changeDetails ()

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 14

Object communication
 Conceptually, objects communicate by
message passing.
 Messages
• The name of the service requested by the calling object.
• Copies of the information required to execute the service
and the name of a holder for the result of the service.
 In practice, messages are often implemented
by procedure calls
• Name = procedure name.
• Information = parameter list.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 15

Message examples
// Call a method associated with a buffer
// object that returns the next value
// in the buffer
v = circularBuffer.Get () ;

// Call the method associated with a

// thermostat object that sets the
// temperature to be maintained
thermostat.setTemp (20) ;

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 16

Generalisation and inheritance
 Objects are members of classes which define
attribute types and operations
 Classes may be arranged in a class hierarchy
where one class (a super-class) is a generalisation of
one or more other classes (sub-classes)
 A sub-class inherits the attributes and
operations from its super class and may add
new methods or attributes of its own
 Generalisation in the UML is implemented as inheritance
in OO programming languages

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 17

A generalisation hierarchy
Employee

Ma nager Programmer

budgetsControlled project
progLanguage
dateAppointed

Project De pt. Strategic

Ma nag er Ma nager Ma nag er
projects dept responsibilities

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 18

Advantages of inheritance
 It is an abstraction mechanism which may be
used to classify entities
 It is a reuse mechanism at both the design and
the programming level
 The inheritance graph is a source of
organisational knowledge about domains and
systems

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 19

Problems with inheritance
 Object classes are not self-contained. they
cannot be understood without reference to their
super-classes
 Designers have a tendency to reuse the
inheritance graph created during analysis. Can
lead to significant inefficiency
 The inheritance graphs of analysis, design and
implementation have different functions and
should be separately maintained

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 20

Inheritance and OOD
 There are differing views as to whether
inheritance is fundamental to OOD.
• View 1. Identifying the inheritance hierarchy or network is a
fundamental part of object-oriented design. Obviously this can
only be implemented using an OOPL.
• View 2. Inheritance is a useful implementation concept which
allows reuse of attribute and operation definitions. Identifying
an inheritance hierarchy at the design stage places
unnecessary restrictions on the implementation
 Inheritance introduces complexity and this is
undesirable, especially in critical systems

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 21

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 22
Concurrent objects
 The nature of objects as self-contained entities
make them suitable for concurrent
implementation
 The message-passing model of object
communication can be implemented directly if
objects are running on separate processors in a
distributed system

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 23

Servers and active objects
 Servers.
• The object is implemented as a parallel process (server)
with entry points corresponding to object operations. If no
calls are made to it, the object suspends itself and waits for
further requests for service
 Active objects
• Objects are implemented as parallel processes and the
internal object state may be changed by the object itself and
not simply by external calls

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 24

Active transponder object
 Active objects may have their attributes modified
by operations but may also update them
autonomously using internal operations
 Transponder object broadcasts an aircraft’s
position. The position may be updated using a
satellite positioning system. The object
periodically update the position by triangulation
from satellites

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 25

An object-oriented design process
 Define the context and modes of use of the
system
 Design the system architecture
 Identify the principal system objects
 Develop design models
 Specify object interfaces

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 26

Weather system description
A weather data collection system is required to generate weather maps on a
regular basis using data collected from remote, unattended weather stations
and other data sources such as weather observers, balloons and satellites.
Weather stations transmit their data to the area computer in response to a
request from that machine.

The area computer validates the collected data and integrates it with the data
from different sources. The integrated data is archived and, using data from
this archive and a digitised map database a set of local weather maps is
created. Maps may be printed for distribution on a special-purpose map
printer or may be displayed in a number of different formats.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 27

Weather station description
A weather station is a package of software controlled instruments
which collects data, performs some data processing and transmits
this data for further processing. The instruments include air and
ground thermometers, an anemometer, a wind vane, a barometer
and a rain gauge. Data is collected every five minutes.

When a command is issued to transmit the weather data, the

weather station processes and summarises the collected data. The
summarised data is transmitted to the mapping computer when a
request is received.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 28

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 29
©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 30
©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 31
Layered architecture
Data display layer where objects are
«subsystem» concerned with preparing and
Da ta display presenting the data in a human-
readable form

Data archiving layer where objects

«subsystem» are concerned with storing the data
Da ta archiving for future processing

Data processing layer where objects

«subsystem» are concerned with checking and
Da ta processing integrating the collected data

Data collection layer where objects

«subsystem» are concerned with acquiring data
Da ta collection from remote sources

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 32

Subsystems in the weather mapping
system
«subsystem»
Da ta collection «subsystem»
Da ta display
Observer Satellite
User Ma p
Co mms interface display

Weather Ma p
Balloon Ma p printer
station

«subsystem» «subsystem»
Da ta processing Da ta archiving

Da ta
Da ta Da ta storage
checking integration
Ma p store Da ta store

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 33

Use-cases for the weather station
Startup

Shutdown

Re port

Ca librate

Test

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 34

Use-case description

System Weather station

Use-case Report
Actors Weather data collection system, Weather station
Data The weather station sends a summary of the weather data that has been
collected from the instruments in the collection period to the weather data
collection system. The data sent are the maximum minimum and average
ground and air temperatures, the maximum, minimum and average air
pressures, the maximum, minimum and average wind speeds, the total rainfall
and the wind direction as sampled at 5 minute intervals.
Stimulus The weather data collection system establishes a modem link with the weather
station and requests transmission of the data.
Response The summarised data is sent to the weather data collection system
Comments Weather stations are usually asked to report once per hour but this frequency
may differ from one station to the other and may be modified in future.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 35

Architectural design
 Once interactions between the system and its
environment have been understood, you use
this information for designing the system
architecture
 Layered architecture is appropriate for the
weather station
• Interface layer for handling communications
• Data collection layer for managing instruments
• Instruments layer for collecting data
 There should be no more than 7 entities in an
architectural model
©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 36
Weather station architecture
Weather station

Manages all
«subsystem» ex ternal
Interface communic ations

Collects and
«subsystem» summaris es
Da ta collection weather data

«subsystem» Pac kage of

ins truments for raw
Instruments data collections

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 37

Object identification
 Identifying objects (or object classes) is the most
difficult part of object oriented design
 There is no 'magic formula' for object
identification. It relies on the skill, experience
and domain knowledge of system designers
 Object identification is an iterative process. You
are unlikely to get it right first time

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 38

Approaches to identification
 Use a grammatical approach based on a natural
language description of the system (used in
Hood method)
 Base the identification on tangible things in the
application domain
 Use a behavioural approach and identify objects
based on what participates in what behaviour
 Use a scenario-based analysis. The objects,
attributes and methods in each scenario are
identified
©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 39
Weather station object classes
 Ground thermometer, Anemometer, Barometer
• Application domain objects that are ‘hardware’ objects related
to the instruments in the system
 Weather station
• The basic interface of the weather station to its environment. It
therefore reflects the interactions identified in the use-case
model
 Weather data
• Encapsulates the summarised data from the instruments

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 40

Weather station object classes
WeatherStation WeatherData
identifier airTemperatures
groundTemperatures
reportWeather () win dSpeeds
calibrate (instruments) win dDirections
test () pressures
startup (instruments) rainfall
shutdown (instruments)
collect ()
summarise ()

Ground Anemometer Ba rom eter

the rmometer pressure
win dSpeed
temperature win dDirection height
test () test ()
calibrate () test ()
calibrate ()

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 41

Further objects and object refinement
 Use domain knowledge to identify more objects
and operations
• Weather stations should have a unique identifier
• Weather stations are remotely situated so instrument failures
have to be reported automatically. Therefore attributes and
operations for self-checking are required
 Active or passive objects
• In this case, objects are passive and collect data on request
rather than autonomously. This introduces flexibility at the
expense of controller processing time

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 42

Design models
 Design models show the objects and object
classes and relationships between these entities
 Static models describe the static structure of the
system in terms of object classes and
relationships
 Dynamic models describe the dynamic
interactions between objects.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 43

Examples of design models
 Sub-system models that show logical groupings
of objects into coherent subsystems
 Sequence models that show the sequence of
object interactions
 State machine models that show how individual
objects change their state in response to events
 Other models include use-case models,
aggregation models, generalisation models,etc.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 44

Subsystem models
 Shows how the design is organised into logically
related groups of objects
 In the UML, these are shown using packages -
an encapsulation construct. This is a logical
model. The actual organisation of objects in the
system may be different.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 45

Weather station subsystems
«subsystem» «subsystem»
Interface Da ta collection

Co mmsCo ntroller WeatherData

Instrument
WeatherStation Status

«subsystem»
Instruments

Air
thermometer Ra inGauge Anemometer

Ground
thermometer Barometer Wind Vane

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 46

Sequence models
 Sequence models show the sequence of object
interactions that take place
• Objects are arranged horizontally across the top
• Time is represented vertically so models are read top to bottom
• Interactions are represented by labelled arrows, Different styles
of arrow represent different types of interaction
• A thin rectangle in an object lifeline represents the time when
the object is the controlling object in the system

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 47

Data collection sequence

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 48

Statecharts
 Show how objects respond to different service
requests and the state transitions triggered by
these requests
• If object state is Shutdown then it responds to a Startup()
message
• In the waiting state the object is waiting for further messages
• If reportWeather () then system moves to summarising state
• If calibrate () the system moves to a calibrating state
• A collecting state is entered when a clock signal is received

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 49

Weather station state diagram
Operation calibrate () Calibrating

calibration OK
startup () Waiting test () Testing
Shutdown

shutdown () transmission done test complete

Transmitting
clock collection
done reportWeather ()
weather summary
Summarising complete
Collecting

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 50

Object interface specification
 Object interfaces have to be specified so that
the objects and other components can be
designed in parallel
 Designers should avoid designing the interface
representation but should hide this in the object
itself
 Objects may have several interfaces which are
viewpoints on the methods provided
 The UML uses class diagrams for interface
specification but Java may also be used
©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 51
Weather station interface
interface WeatherStation {

public void WeatherStation () ;

public void startup () ;

public void startup (Instrument i) ;

public void shutdown () ;

public void shutdown (Instrument i) ;

public void reportWeather ( ) ;

public void test () ;

public void test ( Instrument i ) ;

public void calibrate ( Instrument i) ;

public int getID () ;

} //WeatherStation

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 52

Design evolution
 Hiding information inside objects means that
changes made to an object do not affect other
objects in an unpredictable way
 Assume pollution monitoring facilities are to be
added to weather stations. These sample the
air and compute the amount of different
pollutants in the atmosphere
 Pollution readings are transmitted with weather
data

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 53

Changes required
 Add an object class called ‘Air quality’ as part of
WeatherStation
 Add an operation reportAirQuality to
WeatherStation. Modify the control software to
collect pollution readings
 Add objects representing pollution monitoring
instruments

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 54

Pollution monitoring
WeatherStation
Air quality
identifier
NO Data
reportWeather () smokeData
reportAirQuality () benzeneData
calibrate (instruments)
test () collect ()
startup (instruments) summarise ()
shutdown (instruments)

Pollution monitoring instruments

NO meter SmokeMeter

BenzeneMeter

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 55

Key points
 OOD is an approach to design so that design
components have their own private state and
operations
 Objects should have constructor and inspection
operations. They provide services to other objects
 Objects may be implemented sequentially or
concurrently
 The Unified Modeling Language provides different
notations for defining different object models

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 56

Key points
 A range of different models may be produced
during an object-oriented design process. These
include static and dynamic system models
 Object interfaces should be defined precisely
using e.g. a programming language like Java
 Object-oriented design simplifies system
evolution

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 12 Slide 57