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ChaptEr 9

APPLICATION OF THE FACT-BASED APPROACH
TO DOMAIN MODELING OF OBJECT-ORIENTED
INFORMATION SYSTEMS

kinh nguyEn and tharam dillon

Abstract: In order for an information system to satisfy the information needs for which it is built,
the design must be based on a correct domain model, which must capture precisely all the classes
and relationships that are relevant to the information needs being addressed. To perform this task,
the text analysis approach—whereby one tries to discover classes and relationships by examining
the nouns and verbs in the language of the domain stakeholders—is commonly adopted. However,
there are situations where the construction of the domain model can be too complex a task for
the text analysis approach to handle effectively. In this chapter, we identify a number of problems
associated with the text analysis approach, and propose the use of the fact-based approach (also
known as Object-Role Modeling) as an alternative technique. In particular, we show how the
fact-based approach can be used effectively, in conjunction with the use case approach, in the
construction of domain models for object-oriented information systems.

Keywords: Information System, Domain Modeling, Text Analysis, Fact-Based Modeling, Object-
Role Modeling, Use Case

INTRODUCTION

In the development of information systems, it is increasingly common for the modeling task to
be approached from the object-oriented perspective, regardless of the eventual implementation
platform. One obvious advantage of this approach is that it allows the analyst to capture both the
structural and behavioral features of the problem as well as the solution space. In addition, the
widespread use of UML greatly facilitates both the modeling activities and the communications
among the people involved. Moreover, with recent advances in practical object persistence solu-
tions such as object-relational mapping, the implementation of information systems can be truly
object-oriented—that is, the domain objects are directly represented and manipulated as software
objects. Consequently, the use of object-oriented modeling has become even more compelling.
Among the tasks of object-oriented modeling, the construction of a correct domain model—
one that captures all the relevant domain classes and their relationships—is critical. A successful
information system must, by necessity, provide the correct functionality in order to satisfy the
business’s information needs for which the system is built. The domain model is in fact a model
of those information needs, and as such, it plays a crucial role in the development process.
The construction of the domain models for industry-strength information systems can be a dif-

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