Object-oriented design

About: Object-oriented design is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5136 publications have been published within this topic receiving 144108 citations.

Towards a Model for Object-Oriented Design Measurement

Abstract: Object-oriented design plays a pivotal role in software development because it determines the structure of the software solution. Once the design has been implemented, it is difficult and expensive to change. Therefore the design should be good from the start. Metrics can help to evaluate and improve the quality of a design. Many metrics of object-oriented design have been proposed. Unfortunately, most of these metrics lack a precise and unambiguous definition. However, in order to automate design evaluation a precise definition of metrics is needed. Therefore the definitions should be based on a formal model of design. In this paper a formal model for object-oriented design called ODEM (Object-oriented DEsign Model) is presented. This model can serve as a foundation for the formal definition of object-oriented design metrics. ODEM is based on the UML meta-model, that provides a formal model of object-oriented designs expressed in UML, the most widespread design notation. Examples of the use of ODEM for defining object-oriented metrics are given. Two case studies on existing metrics suites for object-oriented design show the benefits of applying ODEM to established object-oriented design metrics.

From objects to classes: algorithms for optimal objection-oriented design

Abstract: Introduces a novel, axiomatically defined, object-oriented data model called the Demeter kernel model; and secondly, presents abstraction and optimisation algorithms and their relationships for designing classes from objects in the kernel model. The authors analyse several computational problems underlying the class design process, which is divided into two phases; a learning phase and an optimisation phase. This study focuses on approximation algorithms for the optimisation phase and aims to lead to a better understanding and a partial automation of the object-oriented design process. The algorithms and the theory presented have been implemented in the C++Demeter System, a CASE tool for object-oriented design and programming. >

OO design patterns, design structure, and program changes: an industrial case study

Abstract: A primary expected benefit of object-oriented (OO) methods is the creation of software systems that are easier to adapt and maintain. OO design patterns are especially geared to improve adaptability, since patterns generally increase the complexity of an initial design in order to ease future enhancements. For design patterns to really provide benefit, they must reduce the cost of future adaptation. The evidence of improvements in adaptability through the use of design patterns and other design structures consists primarily of intuitive arguments and examples. There is little empirical evidence to support claims of improved flexibility of these preferred structures. In this case study, we analyze 39 versions of an evolving industrial OO software system to see if there is a relationship between patterns, other design attributes, and the number of changes. We found a strong relationship between class size and the number of changes-larger classes were changed more frequently. We also found two relationships that we did not expect: (1) classes that participate in design patterns are not less change prone-these pattern classes are among the most change prone in the system, and (2) classes that are reused the most through inheritance tend to be more change prone. These unexpected results hold up after accounting for class size, which had the strongest relationship with changes.

Designing for schedulability: integrating schedulability analysis with object-oriented design

Abstract: There is a growing interest in using the object paradigm for developing real time software. We believe that an approach that integrates the advancements in both object modeling and design methods, and real time scheduling theory is the key to successful use of object technology for real time software. Surprisingly many past approaches to integrate the two either restrict the object models, or do not allow sophisticated schedulability analysis techniques. The authors show how schedulability analysis can be integrated with object oriented design. More specifically, they show how fixed priority scheduling theory can be applied to designs developed using UML-RT, a specialization of UML for real time software. In conjunction with automatic code generation, we believe that this will greatly streamline the design and development of real time software.