Foreword

Because things are often fuzzy at the beginning of a software project, because it is sometimes difficult to get stakeholders to agree, because required information and functions are often unclear, because customers have no compunction about requesting systems with frightening complexity and staggering size, and because it’s so tempting to assume that we already know what is required, there remains a compelling need for good books that teach software engineers a pragmatic, proven approach to analysis and design. Raul Wazlawick provides us with such a book.

Over the past 50 years we have seen many methods proposed for analysis and design of computer software, but in my view, the most intuitive and effective adopts an object-oriented mindset. Remember, analysis and design occur relatively early in the software process at a time when things are fluid, where iteration is not only common, but mandatory, and where “objects” are often the most visible of all elements of the problem.

The beauty of the object-oriented paradigm is that it is wonderfully elastic. We can describe objects that are easily understood by business people at the conceptual level, and then through a process of iteration and elaboration, refine those objects into much lower levels of abstraction that technical people can use effectively. In this book, Professor Wazlawick provides us with guidance for accomplishing this.

Using UML as his notational form, he begins where all good analysts should start—at the beginning! He provides us with the tools required to understand the problem through a process of elicitation, elaboration, and representation. He emphasizes use cases, and helps us understand that they serve as both an excellent mechanism for problem understanding and as a mechanism that can greatly assist project planning.

He insists that good analysts and good designers must iterate as they develop an increasingly better and more detailed understanding of the problem. To accomplish this, he provides the reader with object-oriented techniques and the UML tools to get that job done.

Through the book, a continuing case study is used to provide examples of all analysis and design techniques. Basic principles are introduced, expanded into a set of workable techniques, and then used to develop analysis and design representations and models using UML.

During my long professional career, I have met with hundreds of companies and thousands of software professionals worldwide. Each company and every person has a unique opinion on what makes software so challenging, and there are as many opinions on how to meet those challenges in a particular situation. But few software professions would disagree with a very simple statement: “If you don’t know where you’re going, it is very, very difficult get there.”

Effective methods for analysis and design provide software professionals with a destination and a road map for getting there. In Object-Oriented Analysis and Design for Information Systems, Raul Wazlawick provides the tools software professionals need to craft the road map, and as a consequence, this book helps every reader get where he needs to go.