BA ABCs: “C” is for Class Diagram

Adrian M. — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 06:36:00 GMT

Continuing the ABC series for Business Analysts, Howard Podeswa created the next installment titled "BA ABCs: “C” is for Class Diagram" as an article rather than a blog post.

You can find the article here:

Here are the previous two posts:

BA ABCs: “A” is for Activity Diagram

BA ABCs: “B” is for BPMN

Why I Do This

Howard Podeswa — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:12:00 GMT

I was at a talk yesterday by American artist Lawrence Weiner. He spent half the time saying there was nothing he had to say about his art; the next half saying it. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Something he had to say really stuck with me: that art is all about creating a logical structure for viewing the world. It helped me understand why I make my living doing two things that seem so disparate: visual art (painting) and Business Analysis. There are many things I love about BA but the part I have the most passion for is visual modeling. Perhaps it’s because of what Weiner pointed out: like art, it’s about creating a logical structure that communicates a way of seeing the world (or a part of it). The types of models I am most interested in are referred to as logical models: the name itself gives away the connection to Weiner’s art objects.

I have never been much interested in the physical world – the world of gadgets and mechanical things; it’s always been the logical structures that underlie the real world (RW) that most interest me. What I love about logical visual modeling is that it strips away those pesky physical details to focus on logical structures. It turns out that this is a great boon to the BA. If we focus on physical details there is very little common language between a business person and a software developer. But if we talk model-talk (for example, using a visual language like the UML), well then we can have a nice discussion: we get each other.

I’ve always been attracted to pursuits where you can get complex results but you only have to remember a few basic elements. Maybe it’s because I’ve always had a lousy memory. As a developer, I was a retro fan of Assembler. I’ve never lost my fascination for how its small set of basic instructions could be used to construct the most complex systems. As a BA, I feel the same about the UML diagrams – especially class diagrams. Give me a few basic concepts modeling elements (generalization, association, ...) and I can model the most complex business system. How cool is that?

Howard Podeswa
His most recent book, The Business Analyst's Handbook may be purchased on amazon.ca, and amazon.com.

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BA ABCs: “C” is for Class Diagram

Why I Do This