This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Keith Ray. Original Post: An O.O. Modeling Method Feed Title: MemoRanda Feed URL: http://homepage.mac.com/1/homepage404ErrorPage.html Feed Description: Keith Ray's notes to be remembered on agile software development, project management, oo programming, and other topics. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Keith Ray Latest Posts From MemoRanda

Andy Dent describes an under-rated method, "Solution-Based Modelling", that was eclipsed by UML, etc. Probably because the method was published in a book with the unfortunate title Developing Object-Oriented Software for the Macintosh : Analysis, Design and Programming written by Neil Goldstein and Jeff Alger. Some snips from Dent:

Goldstein & Alger developed an OO design method that was clearer than UML or Booch and better founded in theory. It was a standard in EDS but has vanished into obscurity. [...]

Notations have a long history in computer softare, starting with flowcharts and proceeding through structure charts, data flow diagrams...various ways of visualizing objects and classes. However helpful these notations have been, they are quite crude by graphic design industry standards. The authors know this first-hand. They enlisted the help of a professional design firm to help develop a notational scheme [...]

I got myself kicked off the early UML design discussion mailing list for taking Booch et al to task for their refusal to consider that they might not be the world's best graphic communicators and should consult some specialists. Sorry, UML users, I tried!

James Plamondon also discussed the book and the method here. A quote:

[...] Jeff Alger introduced a crowd of over fifty attendees to Solution-Based Modeling (SBM). SBM is the subject of a book forthcoming from Addison-Wesley entitled "Developing Object-Oriented Software for the Macintosh," and is the brainchild of Alger and his coauthor, Neal Goldstein.

SBM is an integrated, lifecycle approach to software development. It emphasizes the importance of involving marketing, management, and other diverse groups in the software development process from the outset. Where other methodologies-most notably the "waterfall" model, in which analysis "flows" into design, design into programming, and so on-look at software development as a series of separate stages, SBM takes a more incremental approach.

Despite the title of Alger and Goldstein's book, SBM is a platform and language-independent methodology. (The publisher insisted that the word "Macintosh" be in the title; their studies have shown that people prefer to buy books directed at a specific platform. This led Goldstein to suggest that the book be titled "Platform-independent Software Development for the Macintosh," [...]