Part II - required sequence diagrams

[Skip Cole]

Hi,
On part II one is supposed to provide a sequence or collaboration diagram for each use case provided. They give us the details on several use cases, but have a diagram that shows a few more use cases.
How are people interpreting this? Are you doing all of the use cases, or only the ones with details provided? If I contacted Sun, do you think they would tell me?
Thanks,
Skip
[This message has been edited by Skip Cole (edited April 20, 2001).]

[Mark Donaghue]

I've been wondering the same thing myself. I haven't quite figured out what others have done, either. One thing to keep in mind is that sequence diagrams only count for 20% of the mark.
Regards,
Mark

[Skip Cole]

Your right.
But actually I am spending most of my time on them. What tool are you using to draw them? I'm using a combination of Microsoft Word and PaintShopPro. The professional tools don't seem all that helpful for the sequence diagram.
It bothers me that the class and component diagrams count for so much. They seem like pretty simple diagrams, and I'm afraid I'll loose points on little mistakes.
Skip

[Mark Donaghue]

Hi Skip,
I'm using Rational Rose 98. I got a trial copy of it (30 days) on the back of Mark Grand's Java design Pattern's book. I learned it using the excellent movie-based tutorial that comes with it (although that part has to be downloaded). It makes generation of sequence diagrams trivial. Also, it runs on my limited 64 meg machine, which the newer versions don't. You may have to export it to gif or jpg format (whichever one is smaller) to upload it.
On the sequence diagrams'low priority in the scoring, my guess is that Sun just wants a very general overall feel for the program flow, just the very major messages. A programmer will probably have a lot of latitude for manipulating all the exact messages.
It looks liek ithey just want to make sure that you follow along
with the MVC architecture, and properly divide components between
the various tiers.
Regrards,
Mark

[Skip Cole]

Hi,
Thanks for this info. I will definately try out Rational Rose.
Thanks!
Skip

[Danl Thompson]

I really wondered what to do with the missing use cases too. But then I re-read the instructions and came to the conclusion that they really only wanted sequence diagrams for the use cases they provided.
I was surprised that the sequence diagrams counted for so little in the scoring, because in my experience they are some of the most useful diagrams. I spent about 80% of my time on them, and the class diagrams generally fall out from them (following Larman's methodology in his excellent book Applying UML and Patterns).
As far as tools go, you absolutely must use something like Rose. Remember that each message in the sequence diagram should be represented in the class diagram as well. A tool like Rose will do this for you. If you try to do it my hand with PaintShop or Word, you'll go mad.
I turned all my stuff in 3 weeks ago, and just waiting for the results.
Dan'l

[Skip Cole]

Hi Mark,
I am looking for the "excellent movie-based tutorial that comes with" Mark Grand's book. You mentioned that it had to be downloaded. Does one have to buy the book to access this, or is it a Rational Rose thing?
Thanks,
Skip

[Mark Donaghue]

Hi Skip,
I'm not really sure. I tried running the mdl files separately, but they didn't work. I suspect it has to run with the intalled application, but I'm not entirely sure about that.
Mark