Simple yet complete heuristics for transforming data flow diagrams into Booch style diagrams

Abstract

This paper presents some simple heuristics for transforming a requirements specification (for a non-real time application) expressed as a data flow diagram (DFD) into a design architecture expressed as an extended Booch diagram. This architecture provides a starting point for subsequent design refinement. The transformations based on simple heuristics were implemented in a research tool. We show that simple things work. We also show that the design architecture satisfies the property of completeness, i.e. all the information in the DFD is preserved in the Booch diagram, and that it has good coupling and cohesion properties. The design architecture is amenable to various design optimizations by automated or manual means.