Concept Maps

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Concept Maps
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Concept Maps

• Using Concept Maps for OOA
• Constructing Concept Maps
• Verifying Concept Maps
• Pitfalls
• Advantages of using Concept Maps
• The Products from the Concept Mapping Phase

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What are Concept Maps?

• Visual communication tool
• Originates from education and cognitive theory
• Can be used to communicate ideas and
  relationships between them
• Used by Datasim since 1991 for processing
  requirements documents (OMT method)

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What are Concept Maps? (continued)

• They are very suitable for OORD and OOA

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(Meta) Concept map
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Using Concept Maps for OOA

• Object-oriented technology needs intuitive
  techniques in the pre-OOA phase
• Concept maps are built from concepts and links
• Concepts translate to objects and classes
• Links translate to generalisation, aggregation
  and association relationships

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Using Concept Maps for OOA (continued)

• They show immediately what is going wrong with
  thought processes

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Definitions

• A concept is a regularity in events or objects
  designated by a label
• Examples chair, wind, furnace, account
• Links are words used to connect concepts
• Links convey meaning
• Concepts and links form the ingredients for
  concept maps

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Types of Concepts

• Tangibles
• Roles

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Types of Links in Concept Maps

• The (static) links between concepts suggest OO
  relationships
• Examples
• Abstraction links ISA, can be, ...
• Partitioning links part of, consists of, has
• Association links everything else
• These map to well-known relationships in UML
  (later)

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Examples

• Abstraction links
• A modem is an I/O device
• A circle is a kind of shape
• An employee is a person

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Examples

• Partitioning links
• A furnace has a motor (and other components)
• A polyline consists of points
• A record is part of a file

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Examples

• Association links
• An issue is an appearance of a journal
• A transaction has to do with an account
• A call is assigned to a specialist

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Tips when creating Links

• Be consistent in your use of words
• Avoid actions (get, update, close, ...)
• Misnamed links
• Missing links

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Constructing Concept Maps

• Input is a requirements documents (documented per
  domain)
• Create initial concept map based on functional
  domains
• This is a recursive process
• Stop when functional domains lead to concepts

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Constructing Concept Maps

• The concepts per functional domain in the
  requirements document should be assembled
• Apply a filtering process to remove non-relevant
  concepts
• Arrange the remaining concepts in a hierarchy
• Make the links between the concepts

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Concept MapsThe Filtering Process

• The initial list of concepts will contain
  information which is not relevant at this time
• Remove
• Attributes (will be needed during OOA, however)
• Concepts which are outside the scope of current
  problem

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Concept Maps (continued)

• Ambiguous and superfluous concepts
• Synonyms
• Homonyms
• Sources of Silence
• Forward References
• Overspecification

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Steps in creating a Concept Map

• 1. Determine the key (level 0) concept
• 2. List supporting concepts at next level of
  generality
• 3. Create links between key concept and
  supporting concepts
• 4. Apply steps 2 and 3 recursively until all
  concepts have been exhausted

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Verifying Concept Maps

• Key concept should have one major function
• Check that we do not have messy maps
• Incorrectly formulated links
• Intersecting links
• Missing links and concepts

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Exercise
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DVM Topology and Structure
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Level 1 Concept Map (Functionality)
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Drink Dispensing Subsystem
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Transaction Centre Subsystem
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Interface Subsystem
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Exercise
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Advantages of using Concept Maps

• Powerful communication medium
• Misconceptions signalled at a very early stage
• Problems can be partitioned into concept domains
• Front-end to object modelling phase in OMT

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Advantages of using Concept Maps (continued)

• Datasim uses it as a costing guideline for
  fixed-priced projects for customers

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The Products

• A number of correctly formulated concept maps
• One concept map per domain
• The concept maps will be used as input to object
  modelling phase

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Summary of Steps in Part I

• Make concept maps for functional domain
  recursively
• When we arrive at concept level, apply standard
  concept mapping techniques

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Exercise
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HHS Concept Map
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Concept map for Control
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Concept map for Regulator
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Concept map for Delivery
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Packages and their Dependencies (HHS)
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Package and Dependencies (HDS)