Agile Modeling in Color
Agile China 2009
September 2009
Presented by: Vernon Stinebaker ( )

Agenda
 Ground rules
 Purpose and expected outcomes
 About the presenter
 Warm-up
 OOA/OOD Review
 Modeling in Color
– Archetypes (meta-pattern)
– Domain Neutral Component
– Applying the Meta-pattern
 Review (quiz)
2

Ground Rules
 Mute your cell phone
 Participate – ask and answer questions
Do Don’t
3

Purpose and expected outcomes
Purpose:
The challenges of modeling are knowing where to start, what to model,
how much to model, and how to model:
Agile Modeling in Color with UML addresses these challenges
Outcomes:
– Understand the key concepts for using the Agile Modeling in Color
technique
– Be able to apply the key concepts to improve your own agile
models

About Me
Vernon Stinebaker (
http://www.linkedin.com/in/vernonstinebaker
– Director of Technology/Principal Architect
– 20+ years software development and process experience
• CMMI, SDLC/waterfall, and agile methodologies
– Certified ScrumMaster/Certified Scrum Practitioner
– 9+ years experience with Feature Driven Development
– Founding member of the open source FDD Tools project
5

No “one” Agile
6

No “one” Agile
 eXtreme Programming (XP)
 Scrum
 DSDM
 Adaptive Software Development
 Crystal
 FDD
 Perficient’s Enable-M
 …
But they share the same objectives -- those described in the
Agile Manifesto
6

Today’s Focus
Agile Modeling in Color (with UML)
an agile modeling technique from
Feature Driven Development
7

FDD in a slide
8

FDD in a slide
 Simple?
8

FDD in a slide
 Simple?
YES!!!
8

FDD in a slide
 Simple?
YES!!!
8

FDD in a slide
 Simple?
YES!!!
But not easy 
8

Develop an Overall Model
9

Develop an Overall Model
 What’s this? Modeling?
9

Develop an Overall Model
 What’s this? Modeling?
 Yes. Agile modeling!
9

Warm-up
Take 5 minutes to create a UML Class diagram for the
following high level story:
– A customer arrives at a POS (Point of Sale) terminal with items to
purchase. The cashier uses the POS terminal to record each item.
The terminal presents the line-item details and running total. The
customer pays for the items. The system updates inventory. The
customer receives a receipt and leaves with the items.

OOA - How to find concepts
Conceptual Class Category
Category list business transactions
Guideline: These are critical (they involve money), so start with transactions.
transaction line items
Guideline: Transactions often come with related line items, so consider these next.
product or service related to a transaction or transaction line item
Guideline: Transactions are for something (a product or service). Consider these next.
where is the transaction recorded?
Guideline: Important.
roles of people or organizations related to the transaction; actors in the use case
Guideline: We usually need to know about the parties involved in a transaction.
place of transaction; place of service
noteworthy events, often with a time or place we need to remember
physical objects
Guideline: This is especially relevant when creating device-control software, or simulations.
descriptions of things
catalogs
Guideline: Descriptions are often in a catalog.
containers of things (physical or information)
things in a container
other collaborating systems
records of finance, work, contracts, legal matters
financial instruments
schedules, manuals, documents that are regularly referred to in order to perform work

OOA - How to find associations
Category
A is a transaction related to another transaction B
A is a line item of a transaction B
A is a product or service for a transaction (or line item) B
A is a role related to a transaction B
A is a physical or logical part of B
A is physically or logically contained in/on B
A is a description for B
A is known/logged/recorded/reported/captured in B
A is a member of B
A is an organizational subunit of B
A uses or manages or owns B
A is next to B

OOA/OOD - Concepts and Actions
Classical approach to identifying Classes, Attributes and
Methods
– Extract from natural language; identify nouns/verbs as
classes/attributes and methods respectfully
A customer arrives at a POS (Point of Sale) terminal with items to
purchase. The cashier uses the POS terminal to record each item. The
terminal presents the line-item details and running total. The customer
pays for the items. The system updates inventory. The customer
receives a receipt and leaves with the items.
– What is the central concept?

OOA/OOD Concepts and Actions
Concepts (Classes) Actions (Methods)
– customer – arrives
– POS Terminal – purchase
– items – record
– cashier – presents
– POS Terminal – pays
– item – updates
– terminal – receives
– line-item details – leaves
– running total
– customer
– items
– system
– inventory
– customer
– receipt
– items

One possible solution

Modeling in Color
Why modeling in color?
– Look at the UML class diagram again
– What information is
being conveyed?
– Is the information
conveyed effectively?
– What relationships are
represented?
– Is there any
discernible patterns?
– How did you know
where to start?

Modeling in Color
How many, which:
– “Two or three colors are usually enough; five is too many.
Four-color combinations must be selected with great care:
nothing looks worse than too many colors, particularly
when they lack common elements.” - Hideaki Chijiiwa
[Chijiiwa87]
– Four colors -- pink, yellow, pastel blue, and pastel green
• Coincidently these same colors are available on post-it notes :-)

Modeling in Color
And why:
– We can use color to:
• Add layers of information to our models (almost like 3D)
• Indicate progression of time
• Represent key categories of information and interactions
within the model
• Add visual impact to the model

Archetypes
A meta-pattern:
– A form from which all things of the same kind [in our case
a software system] more or less follow. [Webster75 and
Hayakawa68]
Represent 4 interconnected archetypes
– Moment-Interval (pink)
– Role (yellow)
– Catalog-like-description (blue)
– Party, place, or thing (green)

Moment-Interval Archetype
Moment-Interval (pink)
– Most important (central) to the model
– Represents something that occurs at a moment in time, or
over an interval of time (a sale, a rental, a reservation, a
service)
– In any domain, one can
look for Moment-Intervals
and begin building a model

Role Archetype
Role (yellow)
– Second most important to a model
– Represents a way of participation by a person, place, or
thing
– Includes methods which enforce
business rules across the collection
of roles being played
– Party (person and organization)
roles are common, but sometimes
you also encounter place or thing
roles: a product and it’s two roles
“product in a sales process” and
“product in use”

Catalog-like-description Archetype
Catalog-like-description (blue)
– Is a collection of values that apply again and again.
– For example, (generic) description of products listed in a
catalog (but not the actual products/inventory)

Party, Place, or Thing Archetype
Party, Place, or Thing (green)
– A party (person or organization), place, or thing is
someone or something that plays different roles
• For example:
– a person (party) may be both an employee and a customer
(two roles)
– A place may be both a retail outlet and a wholesale outlet

What color is that class?
Is it a moment or interval of time? It’s pink.
Is is a role played? It’s yellow.
Is it a catalog-like-description? It’s blue.
Otherwise, it’s a party, place, or thing. It’s green.

The Domain Neutral Component

Review Exercise - Applying the Meta-pattern
Recreate the UML Class diagram for the story:
– Try to consider any ancillary or supporting classes that
might be required but not explicitly detailed in the user
story.
– Apply the color archetypes and domain neutral component.

A possible color model

Review Questions
Has your modeling efficiency improved?
Do you have a better idea of where to start, what to model,
how much to model, and how to model?

References
Books
– Coad, Peter, Lefebvre, Eric and DeLuca, Jeff, Java Modeling
in Color with UML, New Jersey, Prentice Hall PTR, 1999
– [Chijiiwa87] Chijiwa, Hideaki, Color Harmony, Cincinnati, Rockport
Publishers, 1987
– [Haykawa68] Hayakawa, S.I., Editor, Use the Right Word. Now
published under the title Choose the Right Word. Reader's Digest,
Pleasantville, 1968
– [Webster78] Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary. Collins
World, 1978
Tools
– ArgoUML -- http://argouml.tigris.org
– NetBeans -- http://www.netbeans.org
– Visual Paradigm -- http://www.visual-paradigm.com