TABLE OF CONTENTS This chapter introduces modeling, including the use of modeling languages, how to model systems, various mechanisms that enable us to produce better models of systems, and how modeling relates to process and methodology. Our goal, in this chapter, is to understand how the roadmap addresses the cultural war between heavyweight and lightweight processes for the heart and soul of process.
A language is a means to express and communicate information. There are three parts to a language, its semantics, syntax, and guidelines. The semantics of a language define concepts and their meanings. The syntax of a language defines a notation for rendering the concepts. The guidelines of a language define rules and idioms of usage for working with the syntax and semantics of the language. Underlying a language and the processes that utilize the language is a foundation consisting of fundamental principles or axioms. The fundamental principles of a language involve essential and "universally" accepted concepts upon which the language is established, the language's means, and facilitate some goals and scope to which the language applies, the language's ends. That is, a language is created for a reason or purpose and applies toward achieving that purpose. To understand and apply a language, such as the UML, one must understand the language's semantics, syntax, and guidelines in the context of the means and ends of the language. The means of the UML include concepts from the object-oriented paradigm and component-based paradigm, and the ends of the UML involve modeling...
