Test 2 Review: Topic Checklist

Analysis

General Analysis Activitites

• Identifying objects, associations, attributes, behaviors
• Building analysis object (structural) model
• Modeling interactions between objects (dynamic model)
• Modeling state changes of an object or sybsystem (dynamic model)
• Checking the model against requirements, revising
• Understand that this is an activity happening in the application domain

Object categories

• Entity objects
• Boundary objects
• Control objects

Identifying Objects, Associations

• During anaylsis, understand how to identify objects from use case and scenario descriptions
• Understand the techniue of natural language analysis (Abbott's heuristics)
• Be able to identify objects and categorize them as either entity, boundary, or control objects
• CRC cards:
  • Be able to identify the parts of a CRC card (class, responsibility, collaborators)
  • Understand what CRC cards represent and the context in which they are used (1 card per class, helps identify classes and relationships)
  • Be able to explain the concept and general process of a CRC session
  • Know what it means for one class to be dependent on another

Analysis Object Model

• Understand how to build the object model with UML class diagrams, and be able to build one
• Understand how to denote associations, and what these things represent when labelling associations:
  • Name of an association
  • Role names
  • multiplicities
• Understand the concept and technique of qualifying an association on a UML class diagram
• Understand inheritance associations, including the difference between these activities used to discover inheritance associations:
  • Generalization
  • Specialization
• Be able to discuss the filling out of the object model, including good techniques for identifying associations, attributes, and responsibilities

Dynamic Model: Sequence and State Chart diagrams

• Understand the UML notation for both sequence diagrams and state chart diagrams
• Given a diagram example, be able to interpret the meaning
• Given a scenario or situation, be able to build a seuence diagram or a state chart diagram
• Understand the context that both are used for
  • Sequence: For notating the communications between objects, for a specific usage of the system
  • State Chart: To map the state changes of an object or a subsystem
• Understand the good guidelines discussed for building sequence diagrams, including:
  • When they should be used (and for what context)
  • general layout, including where to put boundary, control, and entity objects
  • How new ojects should be created (and by which objects)
  • Which methods or operations should be allowed to access which others
• Understand the basic layout and idea behind statechart diagrams, as well as what they are for
  • Understand what a state is
  • Understand what a transition is

Class Design Principles

• Understand the principles discussed in class for building well-designed classes
• Be able to discuss the general goals for good class design, including the ideas of interface vs. implementation, having a good interface (communication between builder and user), coupling
• Understand the principles behind building a good class interface. This includes understanding these terms and how they apply:
  • Cohesion
  • Completeness
  • Convenience
  • Clarity
  • Consistency
• Be able to discuss good guidelines for encapsulation (separating interface from implementation), including:
  • access levels of members (private data, public methods)
  • accessors, mutators, utility functions
  • ensuring that a class preserves the integrity of the object at all times
• Understand the "Law of Demeter" and how it applies to class design
• Understand the idea of immutable classes, and be able to discuss their ramifications, both in Java and C++
• Understand what is meant by "unintended side effects" and how to avoid them

Contracts

• Know the primary types of contracts in a class:
  • Invariants
  • Preconditions
  • Postconditions
• Understand how and why to create contracts
• Understand the context of each, as well as how to specify
• Understand the basic OCL notation for specifying contracts, like on a UML diagram (or in text documentation)
• Understand the idea behind throwing exceptions, and how this applies to contracts

Exception Handling

• Understand the concept of exception handling and how this differs from conventional error checking
• Be able to describe a situation where exception handling would be approrpiate, and perhaps necessary
• Understand when to use exception handling (vs. conventional techniues)

Exception handling in Java

• Know the difference between checked exceptions and unchecked exceptions
• Understand the try , catch , finally syntax and how to use it
• Understand what it means to "claim" an exception, when you shouldd do it, and how you do it in Java (keyword throws)
• Understand the throw keyword, and how it differs from throws, including what it is used for
• Know what happens if an exception is not caught
• Understand what is meant by a stack trace and stack unwinding

Exceptions in C++

• Understand how C++ exception handling syntax differs from Java
• Know how to "claim" and exception in C++, and also how to throw one

Testing

• Understand the terms: reliability, failure, error, fault
• Understand the general ways of dealing with errors, and be able to give examples of each:
  • Error Prevention (avoidance)
  • Error Detection
  • Error Recovery (fault tolerance)
• Understand the theoretical limitations of testing:
  • Testing can only show presence of bugs (not their absense)
  • Not possible or feasible to run every possible test case on a non-trivial system
• Understand these testing concepts, be able to give examples:
  • Component
  • Test case
  • Test stub
  • Test driver

Black box and white box testing

• Black Box testing: Focuses on I/O behavior
• White Box testing: Focuses on thoroughness of testing, from an internal standpoint
• Be able to describe the difference between these, and be able to compare them
• Black box testing techniques -- understand what is meant by:
  • Equivalence testing
  • Boundary testing
• White box testing techniques -- understand what is meant by:
  • Path testing
  • State-based testing
• What are the limitations of path testing?
• What is the difficult part of state-based testing?
• What are the problems with black box testing?