Bulldozer00's Blog

Recently, I had to publicly disclose the design of the multi-threaded CSCI (Computer Software Configuration Item) that I’m currently bringing to life with a small group of colleagues. The figure below shows the entities (packages, CSCs (Computer Software Components), Classes) and the inter-entity relationship schema that I used to create the CSCI design artifacts.

As the figure illustrates, the emerging CSCI contains M packages and K top level CSCs . Each package contains from 1 to N 2nd level CSCs that associate with each other via the “communicates” (via messages) relationship. Each CSC is of the “passive” or “active” class type, where “active” means that the CSC executes within its own thread of control.

Using the schema, I presented the structural and behavioral aspects of the design as a set of views:

• The threads view (behavioral )
• The packages view (structural)
• The class diagrams view (structural)
• The sequence diagrams view (behavioral)

Like any “real” design effort (and unlike the standard sequential design-code-test mindset of “authorities“), I covertly used the incremental and iterative PAYGO methodology (design-a-little, code-a-little, test-a-little, document-a-little) in various mini sequences that, shhhh – don’t tell any rational thinker, just “felt right” in the moment.

As we speak, the effort is still underway and, of course, the software is 90% done. Whoo Hoo! Only 10 more percent to go.