knowledge-kitchen / course-notes

class: center, middle # Domain Modeling Identifying the entities existent in a problem space. --- # Agenda 1. [Overview](#overview) 2. [Entities](#entities) 3. [Relationships](#relationships) 4. [Entity-Relationship Diagrams](#er-diagrams) 5. [Conclusions](#conclusions) --- name: overview # Overview -- ## Concept Developing and documenting a conceptual model of the _things_ that exist within the domain of the project, and the interrelationships among those _things_. -- Domain models help break down and understand the _problem space_ within which work will be performed. --- template: overview ## Concept (continued) Whereas [use cases](../uml-diagrams#use-cases) and [user stories](../requirements-engineering#user-stories) help understand the users and their interactions with the system, domain modeling helps understand the internals of the system to be built. --- template: overview name: living-documentation ## Living documentation Domain models are _living documents_. They are continually refined as needed. They are never _done_ and never _exhaustive_. They are _conversational_ in nature. They provide only as much information as is useful to those involved in a project. --- template: overview ## Living documentation (continued) As you work on a project, your understanding of the domain expands. Keeping an up-to-date domain model can help all involved agree on the details of the domain. --- name: entities # Entities -- ## Concept Entities are the _things_ that exist in the domain of a project that must be documented. Entities may be people, processes, system components, databases, or any other _noun_. --- template: entities ## Process Identifying _entities_ is easy (if you have written documentation of the project). - Go through all existing documentation and write down all the _nouns_. - Consolidate any synonyms that describe the same _thing_. - Remove any _nouns_ that are, in fact, attributes or properties of other _nouns_ - these are not entities. --- template: entities ## Diagramming Domain models follows a standardized modeling style defined by the [Unified Modeling Language](/content/courses/software-engineering/slides/uml-diagrams) (UML), a commonly-used diagramming language. - Entities are placed in rectangles. --- template: entities ## Example  --- name: relationships # Relationships -- ## Concept Once _entities_ are established, document the _relationships_ or _interactions_ among them. - How many of each _entity_ are involved in the relationship? This is the _multiplicity_ of the relationship --- template: relationships ## Diagramming Domain models follows a standardized modeling style defined by the Unified Modeling Language (UML), a commonly-used diagramming language. - Relationships are drawn as lines between the related entities. - The _multiplicity_, or how many instances of each entity are involved in a given relationship, are notated next to the relevant entity. --- template: relationships ## Example  --- template: relationships ## Example This example contains additional details about each _entity_:  --- name: er-diagrams # Entity-Relationship Diagrams -- ## Concept In database design, very similar diagrams are created, called Entity-Relationship Diagrams (ERD). - The two are done for different purposes, but the style of diagram is very similar. --- name: conclusions # Conclusions Thank you. Bye.