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RUP is a comercial implementation of the Unified Modeling Language (UML). The UML was developed to create the necessary models (functional, data, etc.) for object oriented software projects. The functional modeling tool in the UML (RUP) is called Use Cases (even though there is nothing really object oriented about Use Cases).
I belong to the requirements engineering listserv and we have discussed the pros and cons of Use Cases alot. While Use Cases are of use (sorry, no pun intended) - they have a major flaw which directly relates to what you are trying to do. In your reverse engineering, you are trying to do an end-to-end flow. The problem with Use Cases is in trying to tie them all together. Data Flow Diagrams naturally tie together, Use Cases don't. This is an especially big problem if the system is of significant size.
Richard Lewis
Lorraine Flynn <lorraine -at- lorraineflynn -dot- com> wrote:
Thanks Richard. This is very useful.
What do you think about using RUP diagrams for the reverse engineering process? RUP is the methodology in use here (supposedly) so if I could use those it would be great.
----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Lewis
To: lorraine -at- lorraineflynn -dot- com ; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 4:39 PM
Subject: Re: Reverse engineering processes
Lorraine:
When I reverse engineer the functionality of a software product (irregardless of the implementation technology), I use Data Flow Diagrams.
For reasons that have to do with systems analysis theory (kind of complex, I won't go into it here), the Yourdon DFD methodology is the best at proding one through a rigorous functional discovery phase. However, for reverse engineering, the methodology does have a flaw: it has no provision for documenting the mechanism employed to accomplish a function (for example, if Method 1 is used to calculate the sales tax, then the DFD function is Calculate Sales Tax, and the mechanism used is Method 1.)
Getting around this problem is simply a matter of using square boxes instead of circles on the diagram, and partitioning of the lower portion of the box to contain a section within which I document my mechanism.
Richard Lewis
lorraine -at- lorraineflynn -dot- com wrote:
Hi
I am working on a project which has a lot of documentation in various
disparate locations. The architect would like to map all the front end
functionality through to the back end java beans and perhaps even to a
method level. I have no idea how to go about this. Does anyone know of a
process or even a tool that might assist with this project?
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