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From: dumphres@blackbird.afit.af.mil (David A. Umphress)
Newsgroups: comp.object
Subject: OOA vs OOD
Message-ID: <1675@blackbird.afit.af.mil>
Date: 14 Aug 90 12:31:51 GMT
Organization: Air Force Institute of Technology; WPAFB, OH
Lines: 24
X-Local-Date: 14 Aug 90 05:31:51 PDT

Can someone offer advice?  I seem to be having some conceptual
difficulties an aspect of object-oriented analysis (OOA):

   How does OOA differ significantly from OOD?  After having
   read Coad's book, Shlear & Mellor's book, etc. and having
   attended an EVB course, I'm still unsure of OOA as a "requirements
   analysis" technique.  In performing an OOA, we concentrate on identifying
   objects and, in the case of Coad and EVB, operations on objects.
   It seems to me that in doing so we are really designing a solution
   to a problem rather than looking at the "requirements."  For instance,
   suppose I was asked to implement a system for transporting people
   from point A to point B in xx minutes.  If I started out with
   an OOA, I'd identify, say, a plane object then describe its
   attributes, constituent parts, and how it interacts with other
   objects in the system (I'm oversimplifying, but you get the idea).
   In doing so, though, I've designed a solution.  The other alternative
   is to describe a "transportation" object.  But this feels like
   a functional (vice OO) approach.  In short, it appears OOA is
   more of a preliminary design approach than a requirements analysis
   technique.  Help!

David Umphress
Air Force Institute of Technology
e-mail:  umphress@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu