Process-centered review of object oriented software development methodologies
ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR)
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Data modeling and functional modeling are two mainactivities of the analysis process. Traditionaldevelopment methodologies usually emphasizefunctional modeling via dataflow diagrams (DFDs),while object-oriented (OO) methodologies emphasizedata modeling via class diagrams. UML includesvarious techniques for both data (structure) andfunctional (behavior) modeling which can be utilizedin various ways. In fact, different methodologiesutilize data modeling and process modelingtechniques in different ways and orders.This study is concerned with the ordering ofmodeling activities in the analysis stage. Our mainquestion is if it is better to create first a functionalmodel and then a data model, or vice versa? Weconduct a comparative experiment in which the twoopposing orders are examined. We use the FOOMmethodology as a platform for the experiment as itenables the production of both a functional model(hierarchical OO-DFDs) and a data model (an initialclass diagram), which are synchronized. The resultsof the experiment reveal that an analysis process thatbegins with data modeling provides better productsthan one that begins with functional modeling.