Weekly Blog # 15

This week in class we learned about the system development life cycle, and more specifically about system design. The first step of the design is to create a blueprint, or blueprints. The two most important models are Data Flow Diagram and the Entity Relationship Diagram. The Data Flow Diagram shows how the data and processes flow and can have different levels. You can Zoom in or out for example from the concept all the way to the programming language for each of the steps. The Data Relationship diagram is not dynamic. It does not show the flow of information. All information on the system is organized in objects which are easier to describe. Each object has attributes which can have different formats. Both these two models can be made using the UML language which already defines the guidelines and rules of the diagrams.
The following article: QuickUML 3.0 - UML Design Tool for Universal Binary Mac OS X and Windows Vista announces release of quick UML. This new 3rd version adds new diagram presentation features, code generators for other programming languages and many other features. Its new presentation features allow attributes, operations, properties and events to be define for each class and each project can be presented as one multi-panel window.