1、Modelling High-Level Behaviour in Processes - Developing Activity (flow of events) Diagrams,Dr Lily Sun 2011/2012,Learning Objectives,To appreciate the role of modelling activities in relation to high-level behaviour of a software systemTo establish views on how a use case behaves through flows of a
2、ctivities in the processTo model such flows of activities in Activity DiagramsTo apply the principles and style guide of Activity Diagrams while analyse and document the requirements for high-level behaviour which in turn will guide a construction of the information models and technical workflows,Ac
3、tivities in the Reality,A business process a series of steps designed to produce a product or service affected by events occurring in business environment or generated by other processes business events trigger activities or control which activity are performed support value chain primary processes
4、resulting in a product or service to be received by an organisations external customer support processes - invisible to the external customer but essential to the effective management of the business input and output - artefacts and information transformation performed by human actors, machines or c
5、ombination of both,Characteristics of a Process View,In a domain context Must achieve a goal Must require specific input and specific output Must consume resources (physical and information) Should consist of a number of activities performed in some order depending on conditions and business rules e
6、vents occur during the execution of the process Must involve stakeholders (internal and external users) and create values to themMay affect more than one organisational units,Operational Processes - providers perspectives,A set of sequenced primary (core) activities which operate business Inbound -
7、transportation from suppliers and receiving inventory Outbound - all fulfilment activities and transportation to customers Marketing - Demand planning and forecasting, coordinating the demand forecast of all customers and sharing the forecast with all suppliers Sales order requisition, dispatch Manu
8、facturing - the consumption of materials and flow of finished goods Post services repair visit, return, complaints Inventory/stock - sourcing planning, including current inventory and forecast demand,Operational Process - customer perspectives,Order fulfilment Product Inquiry - Initial inquiry about
9、 offerings, visit to the web-site, catalogue request Sales Quote - Budgetary or availability quote Order Configuration - Where ordered items need selection of options or order lines need to be compatible with each other Order Booking - a formal order placement Order Acknowledgment/Confirmation - con
10、firmation that the order is booked and/or received Order Sourcing / Planning - determining the source/location of items to be shipped Order Changes - Changes to orders if required Shipment Release - the warehouse/inventory stocking: picking, packing and staging for shipment Shipment - shipment and t
11、ransportation of the goods Delivery - delivery of the goods to the consignee/customer Invoicing/Billing - presentment of the commercial invoice/bill to customers Settlement - payment of the charges for goods/services/delivery Returns - In case the goods are unacceptable,Representation of a Process,I
12、dentifying Processes at Abstract Level,customer requests order,order received & verified,dispatch order,configure order,invoice customer,pay for order,Detailing Activities in the Process,Why How When Where,customer requests order,order received & verified,dispatch order,configure order,invoice custo
13、mer,pay for order,What,Activity Diagrams,Activity the behavioural steps involved in a process that produce and consume artifact and information activities are owned by stakeholdersActivity Diagrams (models) used for creating views of represents the business and operational step-by-step workflows of
14、components in a system “as-is” business processes “to-be” business processesShow flows from activity to activity resulting in some actions (an action is a set of atomic computations) may call operations from different business functional areas (departments) via a message passing,Notations of Activit
15、y Diagrams,An activity consists of a set of actions labelled by its nameA control flow shows a sequence of executionA initial-activity node portrays the beginning of a set of activitiesA finish-activity node stops a specific control flow,Update payment,Notations of Activity Diagrams (cont.),A decisi
16、on node used to ensure the activity flows through one path controlled by conditions A merge node used to bring back together different decision paths A fork node used to split behaviour into a set of parallel or concurrent flows of activity,Decision criteria,Decision criteria,Notations of Activity D
17、iagrams (cont.),A join node used to bring back together a set of parallel of concurrent flows of activities A swimlane used to break up an activity diagram into rows and columns to assign the individual activity to the responsible role of a stakeholder who executes the activities labelled with the n
18、ame of the individual stakeholder,Other Elements in Activity Diagrams,Context a scope of the activities carried out in the flowStakeholders A role played by a person, place or thing that has some sort of interest in artifacts or information A role draws responsibilities Single person may play multip
19、le rolesBusiness rules and norms Rules, regulations, policies and constraints,To set the context of scope within which activities will be modelled To identify the activities, control flows that occur between the activitiesTo identify any decisions (conditions and actions) that are part of the proces
20、sTo identify any prospects for parallelism in the processTo organise the activities within their siwmlanes which represent the associated roles of the stakeholders,Guidelines for Activity Diagramming,Template of an Activity Diagram,Systems Use Case Model - Order Fulfillment,Return goods,Update inven
21、tory,Plan shipping,Update customer account,Place order,Customer discount,Cancelorder,check status on order,Generate sales report,Customer,Sales Manager,Pay for order,Warehouse,Verify order,Order Fulfillment,Track order,Invoice customer,Financial clerk,Route & schedule,Sales Rep, with membership,View
22、 customer account,Customer Sales dep. Finance dep. Shipping dep.(warehouse),“Order Fulfillment” Process Model,Request elevators,Receive order,Consolidate elevators,Deliver order,Invoice customer,Receive elevators,Verify order,not accept,Resubmit request,accept,Configure order,Acknowledge order,Confi
23、rmation of invoice,Receive payment,Close order,paid,Remind payment,not paid,A,A,Customer Sales dep. Finance dep. Shipping dep.(warehouse),“Order Fulfillment” Process Model (cont.),Request elevators,Receive order,Consolidate elevators,Deliver order,Invoice customer,Receive elevators,Verify order,not
24、accept,Resubmit request,accept,Configure order,Acknowledge order,Receive invoice,Receive payment,Close order,paid,Remind payment,not paid,A,A, if an order is accepted then (customer must be acknowledged)and (invoice must be issued to the customer)and (delivery of ordered goods must be arranged),Obje
25、cts Mapped onto Activities in the Process,customer requests order,order received & verified,dispatch order,configure order,invoice customer,payment for order,o: order,o: product,o: invoice,o:customer,read from:,write to:,Advantages/Disadvantages,Activity Diagrams typically useful like flow charts re
26、veal how use cases perform for achieving the goal view explicitly who (stakeholders) , with what roles and their responsibilities, participate the activities in a domain context articulate what information those stakeholders consume when they accomplish the activities also explicitly support paralle
27、l activities and synchronisationDo not explicitly model which objects mapped onto which activities messaging between objects timings of activities,Requirements Documentation Tools http:/www.visual- Requirements Articulation for Software Systems - Design of activity model(s),flow logics,involving act
28、ors,Xx YY,Request elevators,Receive order,Invoice customer,Verify order,Configure order,context,Sub-flow,Practical on Activity Diagramming,What is the purpose of modelling processes?What are the key aspects that activity diagramming focuses on?What are the notations of Activity Diagrams and their semantics?Create your own activity model and justify how it could be improved?,
