Object-oriented modeling (OOM) is an approach to modeling an application that is used at the beginning of the

software life cycle A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

when using an object-oriented approach to software development. The software life cycle is typically divided up into stages going from abstract descriptions of the problem to designs then to code and testing and finally to deployment. Modeling is done at the beginning of the process. The reasons to model a system before writing the code are: *Communication. Users typically cannot understand programming language or code. Model diagrams can be more understandable and can allow users to give developers feedback on the appropriate structure of the system. A key goal of the Object-Oriented approach is to decrease the "semantic gap" between the system and the real world by using terminology that is the same as the functions that users perform. Modeling is an essential tool to facilitate achieving this goal . *

Abstraction Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or "concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstr ...

. A goal of most software methodologies is to first address "what" questions and then address "how" questions. I.e., first determine the functionality the system is to provide without consideration of implementation constraints and then consider how to take this abstract description and refine it into an implementable design and code given constraints such as technology and budget. Modeling enables this by allowing abstract descriptions of processes and objects that define their essential structure and behavior. Object-oriented modeling is typically done via

use cases In software and systems engineering, the phrase use case is a polyseme with two senses: # A usage scenario for a piece of software; often used in the plural to suggest situations where a piece of software may be useful. # A potential scenario ...

and abstract definitions of the most important objects. The most common language used to do object-oriented modeling is the Object Management Group's Unified Modeling Language (UML).

References

{{reflist Object-oriented programming Software design

See also

References