OBJECT ORIENTED

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
A Brief History
 The object-oriented paradigm took its shape from the initial concept of a new
programming approach, while the interest in design and analysis methods came
much later.
 The first object–oriented language was Simula (Simulation of real systems) that
was developed in 1960 by researchers at the Norwegian Computing Center.
 In 1970, Alan Kay and his research group at Xerox PARK created a personal
computer named Dynabook and the first pure object-oriented programming
language (OOPL) - Smalltalk, for programming the Dynabook.
 In the 1980s, Grady Booch published a paper titled Object Oriented Design that
mainly presented a design for the programming language, Ada. In the ensuing
editions, he extended his ideas to a complete object–oriented design method.
 In the 1990s, Coad incorporated behavioral ideas to object-oriented methods.
 The other significant innovations were Object Modelling Techniques (OMT) by
James Rumbaugh and Object-Oriented Software Engineering (OOSE) by Ivar
Jacobson.
 Object-Oriented Analysis
 Object–Oriented Analysis (OOA) is the procedure of identifying software engineering
requirements and developing software specifications in terms of a software system’s object
model, which comprises of interacting objects.
 The main difference between object-oriented analysis and other forms of analysis is that in

object-oriented approach, requirements are organized around objects, which integrate both
data and functions. They are modelled after real-world objects that the system interacts with.
In traditional analysis methodologies, the two aspects - functions and data - are considered
separately.
 Grady Booch has defined OOA as, “Object-oriented analysis is a method of analysis that

examines requirements from the perspective of the classes and objects found in the vocabulary
of the problem domain”.
The primary tasks in object-oriented analysis (OOA) are −
 Identifying objects

 Organizing the objects by creating object model diagram

 Defining the internals of the objects, or object attributes

 Defining the behavior of the objects, i.e., object actions

 Describing how the objects interact

 The common models used in OOA are use cases and object models.
 Object-Oriented Design

 Object–Oriented Design (OOD) involves implementation of the conceptual model

produced during object-oriented analysis. In OOD, concepts in the analysis model,
which are technology−independent, are mapped onto implementing classes,
constraints are identified and interfaces are designed, resulting in a model for the
solution domain, i.e., a detailed description of how the system is to be built on
concrete technologies.
The implementation details generally include −
 Restructuring the class data (if necessary),
 Implementation of methods, i.e., internal data structures and algorithms,
 Implementation of control, and

 Implementation of associations.

Grady Booch has defined object-oriented design as “a method of design

encompassing the process of object-oriented decomposition and a notation for
depicting both logical and physical as well as static and dynamic models of the
system under design”.
 Object-Oriented Programming

 Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based upon objects

(having both data and methods) that aims to incorporate the advantages of modularity and
reusability. Objects, which are usually instances of classes, are used to interact with one
another to design applications and computer programs.
The important features of object–oriented programming are −
 Bottom–up approach in program design

 Programs organized around objects, grouped in classes

 Focus on data with methods to operate upon object’s data

 Interaction between objects through functions

 Reusability of design through creation of new classes by adding features to existing classes

Some examples of object-oriented programming languages are C++, Java, Smalltalk, Delphi,
C#, Perl, Python, Ruby, and PHP.
Grady Booch has defined object–oriented programming as “a method of implementation in
which programs are organized as cooperative collections of objects, each of which
represents an instance of some class, and whose classes are all members of a hierarchy of
classes united via inheritance relationships”.
 Objects and Classes

Object
 An object is a real-world element in an object–oriented environment

that may have a physical or a conceptual existence. Each object has

−
 Identity that distinguishes it from other objects in the system.
 State that determines the characteristic properties of an object as

well as the values of the properties that the object holds.

 Behavior that represents externally visible activities performed by an

object in terms of changes in its state.

 Objects can be modelled according to the needs of the application.

An object may have a physical existence, like a customer, a car, etc.;

or an intangible conceptual existence, like a project, a process, etc.
 Class

 A class represents a collection of objects having same

characteristic properties that exhibit common behavior. It gives
the blueprint or description of the objects that can be created
from it. Creation of an object as a member of a class is called
instantiation. Thus, object is an instance of a class.
The constituents of a class are −
 A set of attributes for the objects that are to be instantiated from

the class. Generally, different objects of a class have some

difference in the values of the attributes. Attributes are often
referred as class data.
 A set of operations that portray the behavior of the objects of the

class. Operations are also referred as functions or methods.

 Example

Let us consider a simple class, Circle, that represents the geometrical figure circle in a
two–dimensional space. The attributes of this class can be identified as follows −
 x–coord, to denote x–coordinate of the center

 y–coord, to denote y–coordinate of the center

 a, to denote the radius of the circle

Some of its operations can be defined as follows −

 findArea(), method to calculate area

 findCircumference(), method to calculate circumference

 scale(), method to increase or decrease the radius

During instantiation, values are assigned for at least some of the attributes. If we
create an object my_circle, we can assign values like x-coord : 2, y-coord : 3, and
a : 4 to depict its state. Now, if the operation scale() is performed on my_circle with
a scaling factor of 2, the value of the variable a will become 8. This operation brings
a change in the state of my_circle, i.e., the object has exhibited certain behavior.
 Encapsulation and Data Hiding

Encapsulation
 Encapsulation is the process of binding both attributes and methods together within a class.

Through encapsulation, the internal details of a class can be hidden from outside. It permits the
elements of the class to be accessed from outside only through the interface provided by the
class.
Data Hiding
 Typically, a class is designed such that its data (attributes) can be accessed only by its class

methods and insulated from direct outside access. This process of insulating an object’s data is
called data hiding or information hiding.
Example
 In the class Circle, data hiding can be incorporated by making attributes invisible from outside

the class and adding two more methods to the class for accessing class data, namely −
 setValues(), method to assign values to x-coord, y-coord, and a
 getValues(), method to retrieve values of x-coord, y-coord, and a
 Here the private data of the object my_circle cannot be accessed directly by any method that is

not encapsulated within the class Circle. It should instead be accessed through the methods
setValues() and getValues().
 Message Passing

 Any application requires a number of objects interacting in a

harmonious manner. Objects in a system may communicate with
each other using message passing.
Suppose a system has two objects: obj1 and obj2. The object obj1
sends a message to object obj2, if obj1 wants obj2 to execute one
of its methods.
The features of message passing are −
 Message passing between two objects is generally unidirectional.
 Message passing enables all interactions between objects.
 Message passing essentially involves invoking class methods.
 Objects in different processes can be involved in message passing.
 Inheritance

 Inheritance is the mechanism that permits new classes to be created out of

existing classes by extending and refining its capabilities. The existing
classes are called the base classes/parent classes/super-classes, and the
new classes are called the derived classes/child classes/subclasses. The
subclass can inherit or derive the attributes and methods of the super-
class(es) provided that the super-class allows so. Besides, the subclass
may add its own attributes and methods and may modify any of the super-
class methods. Inheritance defines an “is – a” relationship.
Example
 From a class Mammal, a number of classes can be derived such as

Human, Cat, Dog, Cow, etc. Humans, cats, dogs, and cows all have the
distinct characteristics of mammals. In addition, each has its own
particular characteristics. It can be said that a cow “is – a” mammal.
 Types of Inheritance

 Single Inheritance − A subclass derives from a single super-

class.
 Multiple Inheritance − A subclass derives from more than one
super-classes.
 Multilevel Inheritance − A subclass derives from a super-class
which in turn is derived from another class and so on.
 Hierarchical Inheritance − A class has a number of subclasses
each of which may have subsequent subclasses, continuing for
a number of levels, so as to form a tree structure.
 Hybrid Inheritance − A combination of multiple and
multilevel inheritance so as to form a lattice structure.
 The following figure depicts the examples of different types of inheritance.
 Polymorphism

 Polymorphism is originally a Greek word that means the ability to take multiple
forms. In object-oriented paradigm, polymorphism implies using operations in
different ways, depending upon the instance they are operating upon.
Polymorphism allows objects with different internal structures to have a
common external interface. Polymorphism is particularly effective while
implementing inheritance.
Example
 Let us consider two classes, Circle and Square, each with a method findArea().

Though the name and purpose of the methods in the classes are same, the
internal implementation, i.e., the procedure of calculating area is different for
each class. When an object of class Circle invokes its findArea() method, the
operation finds the area of the circle without any conflict with the findArea()
method of the Square class.
 Generalization and Specialization

 Generalization and specialization represent a hierarchy of relationships

between classes, where subclasses inherit from super-classes.
Generalization
 In the generalization process, the common characteristics of classes are

combined to form a class in a higher level of hierarchy, i.e., subclasses

are combined to form a generalized super-class. It represents an “is – a
– kind – of” relationship. For example, “car is a kind of land vehicle”,
or “ship is a kind of water vehicle”.
Specialization
 Specialization is the reverse process of generalization. Here, the

distinguishing features of groups of objects are used to form specialized

classes from existing classes. It can be said that the subclasses are the
specialized versions of the super-class.
 Links and Association

Link
 A link represents a connection through which an object collaborates with other

objects. Rumbaugh has defined it as “a physical or conceptual connection

between objects”. Through a link, one object may invoke the methods or
navigate through another object. A link depicts the relationship between two or
more objects.
Association
 Association is a group of links having common structure and common behavior.

Association depicts the relationship between objects of one or more classes. A

link can be defined as an instance of an association. As an example, imagine the
relationship between a doctor and a patient. A doctor can be associated with
multiple patients. At the same time, one patient can visit multiple doctors for
treatment or consultation. Each of these objects has its own life cycle and there
is no “owner” or parent. The objects that are part of the association relationship
can be created and destroyed independently.
 Degree of an Association

 Degree of an association denotes the number of classes

involved in a connection. Degree may be unary, binary,
or ternary.
 A unary relationship connects objects of the same

class.
 A binary relationship connects objects of two classes.
 A ternary relationship connects objects of three or

more classes.
 Cardinality Ratios of Associations

 Cardinality of a binary association denotes the number of

instances participating in an association. There are three
types of cardinality ratios, namely −
 One–to–One − A single object of class A is associated
with a single object of class B.
 One–to–Many − A single object of class A is associated
with many objects of class B.
 Many–to–Many − An object of class A may be associated
with many objects of class B and conversely an object of
class B may be associated with many objects of class A.
 Aggregation or Composition

 Aggregation or composition is a relationship among classes by which a

class can be made up of any combination of objects of other classes. It
allows objects to be placed directly within the body of other classes.
Aggregation is referred as a “part–of” or “has–a” relationship, with the
ability to navigate from the whole to its parts. An aggregate object is an
object that is composed of one or more other objects.
Example
 In the relationship, “a car has–a motor”, car is the whole object or the

aggregate, and the motor is a “part–of” the car. Aggregation may denote
−
 Physical containment − Example, a computer is composed of monitor,

CPU, mouse, keyboard, and so on.

 Conceptual containment − Example, shareholder has–a share.