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Object-Oriented Analysis and Design 349

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Visualizations..................................................................................................

The final piece of the requirements document is the visualization. The visualization is a

fancy name for the diagrams, pictures, screen shots, prototypes, and any other visual rep-

resentations created to help you think through and design the graphical user interface of

your product.

For many large projects, you can develop a full prototype to help you (and your cus-

tomers) understand how the system will behave. On some teams, the prototype becomes

the living requirements document; the “real” system is designed to implement the func-

tionality demonstrated in the prototype.

Artifacts ..........................................................................................................

At the end of each phase of analysis and design, you will create a series of documents

(often called “artifacts” or “deliverables”). Table 11.1 shows some of the artifacts of the

analysis phase. Several groups use these documents. The customer will use the docu-

ments to be certain that you understand what they need. End users will use them to give

feedback and guidance to the project. The project team will use them to design and

implement the code. Many of these documents also provide material crucial both to your

documentation team and to Quality Assurance to tell them how the system oughtto

behave.

TABLE11.1 Artifacts Created During the Analysis Stage of Project Development

Artifact Description

Use-case report Document detailing the use cases, scenarios,

stereotypes, preconditions, postconditions, and

visualizations

Domain analysis Document and diagrams describing the relationships

among the domain objects

Analysis collaboration diagrams Collaboration diagrams describing interactions

among objects in the problem domain

The inclusion of “wiggle room” in your planning document is not an excuse

to avoid planning documents. It is merely a warning not to rely on them too

much early on. As the project goes forward, you’ll strengthen your under-

standing of how the system works, and your estimates will become increas-

ingly precise.

NOTE