Higher National Unit specification: general information

Unit title: Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis

and Design

Unit code: H172 35

Superclass: CB

Publication date: March 2012

Source: Scottish Qualifications Authority

Version: 01

Unit purpose
This Unit is designed to enable candidates to develop a knowledge of the theoretical
concepts, underlying principles, scope and role of systems analysis and design undertaken
within an object oriented environment. The Unit develops Candidates’ practical systems
development skills and introduces Candidates to a variety of requirements gathering and
modelling techniques used in object oriented systems analysis and design, using UML or
similar modelling notation. The emphasis will be on static conceptual modelling (class
diagrams) and evolving behavioural models (use case models and sequence diagram
modelling). It is recommended that this Unit is delivered in tandem with the Unit [insert code
here] Software Development: Object Oriented Programming to give candidates an insight
into the full development lifecycle.

On completion of the Unit the candidate should be able to:

1 Describe the object oriented paradigm.

2 Produce a static model of a system.
3 Produce a dynamic model of a system.

Recommended prior knowledge and skills

Access to this Unit will be at the discretion of the centre, however it would be beneficial if the
candidate already possessed good written communication, critical thinking and analytical
skills, either through workplace experience or training at an appropriate level. It would also
be beneficial if the candidate had prior experience of the software development process.

This may be evidenced by the possession of one or more relevant HN Units such as
H17Y 34 Software Development: Systems Foundations, DH3F 34 Systems Development:
Introduction and H17W 34 Software Development: Developing Small Scale Standalone
Applications.

H172 35, Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (SCQF level 8) 1
General information (cont)

Credit points and level

2 Higher National Unit credits at SCQF level 8: (16 SCQF credit points at SCQF level 8*)

*SCQF credit points are used to allocate credit to qualifications in the Scottish Credit and
Qualifications Framework (SCQF). Each qualification in the Framework is allocated a number of SCQF
credit points at an SCQF level. There are 12 SCQF levels, ranging from Access 1 to Doctorates.

Core Skills
Opportunities to develop aspects of Core Skills are highlighted in the Support Notes of this
Unit specification.

There is no automatic certification of Core Skills or Core Skill components in this Unit.

Context for delivery

If this Unit is delivered as part of a Group Award, it is recommended that it should be taught
and assessed within the subject area of the Group Award to which it contributes.

The most appropriate approach to delivery is to integrate this Unit with a Unit that requires
the candidate to carry out development of a computer system that utilises object-oriented
technologies. It is recommended that this Unit be delivered in conjunction with H171 35
Software Development: Object Oriented Programming.

H172 35, Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (SCQF level 8) 2
Higher National Unit specification: statement of standards

Unit title: Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis

and Design

Unit code: H172 35

The sections of the Unit stating the Outcomes, Knowledge and/or Skills, and Evidence
Requirements are mandatory.

Please refer to the Knowledge and/or Skills for the Unit and Evidence Requirements for the
Unit after the Outcomes.

Outcome 1
Describe the object oriented paradigm.

Knowledge and/or Skills

♦ Object oriented concepts

♦ Object oriented design models and techniques
♦ Object oriented system life cycle

Outcome 2
Produce a static model of a system.

Knowledge and/or Skills

♦ Construction of a class diagram

♦ Identification of attributes
♦ Identification of operations
♦ Visibility of attributes and operations (private, public, protected)
♦ Specification of appropriate association, aggregation and inheritance relationships
between classes

H172 35, Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (SCQF level 8) 3
Higher National Unit specification: statement of standards (cont)

Unit title: Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis

and Design

Outcome 3
Produce a dynamic model of a system.

Knowledge and/or Skills

♦ Domain modelling:
— Use case diagrams
— Use case descriptions
♦ Dynamic modelling:
— Sequence diagrams
— Activity diagrams
— Statechart diagrams
♦ Requirements validation

Evidence Requirements for the Unit

As an alternative to traditional assessment methods (eg paper-based), Candidates can

provide a digital record of evidence to demonstrate Knowledge and/or Skills. Suggested
approaches are outlined in the Support Notes, Guidance on the assessment of this Unit.

Closed-book Assessment

Candidates will need to provide evidence to demonstrate their knowledge by showing that
they can identify and critically analyse object oriented concepts, models, techniques and life
cycle stages of object oriented design. The questions should cover the following areas:

♦ Objects and classes

♦ Attributes and operations
♦ Abstraction, encapsulation and data hiding
♦ Inheritance
♦ Polymorphism
♦ Association
♦ Aggregation
♦ Collaboration
♦ Coupling
♦ Cohesion
♦ The purpose of use case, class, and sequence diagrams
♦ The system life cycle for an object oriented systems development method

This assessment should be conducted under supervised closed-book conditions and the
questions presented must change on each assessment occasion.

H172 35, Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (SCQF level 8) 4
Higher National Unit specification: statement of standards (cont)

Unit title: Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis

and Design
Open-book Assessment

Candidates will need to provide evidence to demonstrate their Knowledge and/or Skills by
showing that they can:

♦ analyse a problem statement and identify requirements.

♦ identify classes, attributes and operations using either CRC cards or natural language
analysis
♦ produce a static model of a system by producing a class diagram that includes
— visibility of attributes and operations (private, public, protected):
— specification of appropriate association, aggregation and inheritance relationships
between classes
♦ construct a use case diagram which models use cases, actors, and associations
between actors and use cases.
♦ construct a minimum of four use case scenarios which include pre and post conditions,
trigger event and the best case scenario flow of events. Alternative or exceptional
behaviour must be included in one or more use case scenarios.
♦ validate requirements using use case scenarios and user interface walkthroughs
♦ construct a sequence diagram which shows the flow of messages between three or
more objects, for one use case.
♦ construct one other interaction diagram. This could be one of any of the following:
activity, collaboration, statechart, component. The diagram must be appropriate for the
scenario.

This assessment is open-book. Assessors should assure themselves of the authenticity of

each candidate’s submission.

H172 35, Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (SCQF level 8) 5
Higher National Unit specification: support notes

Unit title: Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis

and Design
This part of the Unit specification is offered as guidance. The support notes are not
mandatory.

While the exact time allocated to this Unit is at the discretion of the centre, the notional
design length is 80 hours.

Guidance on the content and context for this Unit

The aim of the Unit is to introduce candidates to the principles and practices of object-
oriented analysis and design. The Unit provides candidates with the skills necessary to use
a variety of object-oriented tools, techniques and methods to analyse a problem and model
and design a system.

The Unit will also provide candidates with an understanding of the defining features of
object-oriented analysis and design and how an object-oriented analysis and design lifecycle
fits into the general subject area of systems development.

The aim of domain modelling is to represent the main concepts (and their interactions) of
the real world problem irrespective of whether a software solution will be used to deal with it.
In specification modelling, a software solution is assumed and an abstract model of the
services to be provided by the system is modelled. Implementation modelling specifies
physical design of the system. This includes both static and dynamic modelling.

This Unit has been developed with the intention of taking the candidates through all phases
of analysis and design from requirements gathering through to specifying the physical
design of the system under consideration. Although it is envisaged that UML or a similar
modelling notation is used to model and document analysis and design, the Outcomes of
the Unit are generally specified to allow the Unit to be delivered using selected techniques
from combinations of object oriented analysis and design methods. The choice of
techniques and modelling notation may be matched to the requirements of the stakeholders,
the type of system under consideration and development environment.

It is strongly recommended that this Unit be delivered in conjunction with H171 35 Software
Development: Object Oriented Programming to reduce assessment load and to show how
the analysis and design techniques and system modelling can be applied to their
programming tasks.

This Unit covers some of the skills described for a pre entry/Junior technician role in the
National Occupational Standards — IT and Telecoms (2009). The main areas covered
correspond to discipline 4.4 Systems Analysis and discipline 4.7 Systems Design. There are
also ample opportunities within the Unit to address a range of skills at both foundation and
intermediate level that are described in the National Occupational Standards for IT Users v3.
The most likely areas to be covered would be Using the Internet and IT Software
Fundamentals.

H172 35, Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (SCQF level 8) 6
Higher National Unit specification: support notes (cont)

Unit title: Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis

and Design

Guidance on the delivery of this Unit

This Unit has a notional length of 80 hours. Time may be allocated as follows:

Object oriented life cycle 6 hours

Object oriented concepts 16 hours
Domain modelling 12 hours
Natural Language Analysis 4 hours
UML static modelling 16 hours
UML dynamic modelling 18 hours
Assessment 8 hours

Though Outcome 1 is largely theoretical, much of the delivery of this Unit will be through
practical activities. It is highly recommended that this Unit be delivered in conjunction with
H171 35 Software Development: Object Oriented Programming to reduce assessment load
and to show how the analysis and design techniques and system modelling can be applied
to their programming tasks.

Outcome 1 introduces candidates to the general principles of the object-oriented approach

to systems analysis and design. The candidates should be introduced to the fundamental
object-oriented concepts of classes, objects, persistence, encapsulation, inheritance and
polymorphism. The candidates should be able to identify the processes that take place in
the lifecycle and identify the major inputs and deliverables that result from each process.

In Outcome 1, candidates should be introduced to the object oriented software development

life cycle, and how this relates to the concepts within this Unit. Candidates could be
introduced to the following important object oriented concepts:

♦ Objects and classes

♦ Attributes and operations
♦ Abstraction, encapsulation and data hiding
♦ Inheritance
♦ Polymorphism
♦ Association
♦ Aggregation
♦ Collaboration
♦ Coupling
♦ Cohesion
♦ The purpose of use case, class, and sequence diagrams
♦ The system life cycle for an object oriented systems development method

H172 35, Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (SCQF level 8) 7
Higher National Unit specification: support notes (cont)

Unit title: Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis

and Design
Outcome 2 addresses requirements gathering and the creation of the static system model.
The high level specification of the client’s requirements should indicate all the users/actors
that interact with each case of usage, and the relationship between cases of usage. This
may be done using a diagram such as UML Use Case Diagram. These can then be
modelled using Class, Responsibility, Collaboration (CRC) Cards. These cards can then be
used in the creation of the class (conceptual) diagram for Outcome 3. Candidates could
produce a low fidelity user interface prototype that will serve as the starting point for
modelling user interface requirements. GUI design is often the easiest way to introduce the
concept of use cases, as use cases are about the functionality of the system from the user’s
point of view, and the user is likely to understand the system functionality through the
options available via the user interface. Finally, the models produced should be validated
using use case scenarios and a user interface walkthrough.

This could all be applied to projects they are working on for H171 35 Software Development:
Object Oriented Programming in order to provide useful examples and make this less
abstract.

Outcome 2 involves creating a static model of the system. Candidates can use their CRC
cards and Use Case Diagram and Scenarios to identify the classes, attributes, and
operations required for the system, and the relationships between the classes. The class
diagram should indicate all appropriate classes and their relationships in terms of
association, aggregation and inheritance. The model should also describe the attributes and
operations needed to support defined cases of usage. It is expected that access types and
data types would be documented for attributes, and that access types, return types, and
parameters would be documented for operations.

In Outcome 2, candidates should be shown the process of getting from requirements

analysis to producing a static model of the system (class diagram). Natural Language
Analysis is a technique which candidates should be taught as this enables them to identify
possible attributes, classes, objects, behaviours, and possible valid attribute values from any
problem statement. It would also be beneficial to introduce candidates to Case-Based
Reasoning. This is the technique of looking back at previous problems and their solutions
and using similar cases as the basis for the design of a solution to the new problem. For
example, candidates could be shown the problem of designing a noughts and crosses
game, and as a class the solution to this problem could be designed. Candidates could then
be asked to design a Connect 4 game, using the noughts and crosses game as a basis for
their design due to the many similarities between the two games. Candidates must learn
UML standards for creating a Class Diagram, and must be able to correctly model classes,
attributes, operations, access and return types, and relationships (including inheritance,
aggregation and association) between classes.

H172 35, Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (SCQF level 8) 8
Higher National Unit specification: support notes (cont)

Unit title: Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis

and Design
Outcome 3 involves creating a dynamic model of the system. This is important to show how
objects will need to interact in order to perform important system processes. As with all
modelling, it is important to focus on modelling that is most beneficial either for problem
solving or communication, rather than steadfastly producing every possible type of diagram
whether it is relevant or not. The Evidence Requirements therefore ask for use case
diagrams and scenarios, and sequence diagrams. Use cases are excellent for
communication with clients, and sequence diagrams help identify if there are flaws in the
static model resulting in high coupling between objects. One other type of dynamic diagram
should also be produced, depending on what is considered most useful for the given project.
It is recommended that activity diagrams, collaboration diagrams and statechart diagrams
are all covered, but only one needs to be assessed. Candidates should be shown examples
of complex diagrams, but these should not be assessed if they are not listed in the Evidence
Requirements for the Unit.

Outcomes 2 and 3 could be taught in order, or they could be inter-mingled and taught in
parallel. Outcome 3 could be taught before Outcome 2 if preferred. This might be beneficial
depending on what stage candidates are at in H171 35 Software Development: Object
Oriented Programming when you are moving on from Outcome 1.

Guidance on the assessment of this Unit

Outcome 1

The timing of Outcome 1 should be assessed at the discretion of the centre assessor. It is
recommended that this is assessed last, since it is intended that the candidate should have
practical experience of an approach to object-oriented systems development and the
techniques involved. The main focus in Outcome 1 should be on the object oriented systems
approach and its defining features, boundaries and general concepts. It is recommended
that Outcome 1 be assessed by a set of multiple choice questions.

Assessment must be undertaken in supervised conditions and is closed book. Candidates

may not bring to the assessment event any notes, textbooks, handouts or other material
(calculators are not allowed). The questions presented must change on each assessment
occasion.

Candidates must answer at least 60% of the questions correctly.

If a centre is presenting this assessment on-line the following assessment methods, where
appropriate, may be selected:

♦ Multiple choice
♦ Drag and drop
♦ Multiple response
♦ Mix and match
♦ A combination of the above

There is an opportunity for a candidate to be assessed on-line subject to meeting the

prescribed assessment conditions.

A candidate should complete this assessment within one hour.

H172 35, Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (SCQF level 8) 9
Higher National Unit specification: support notes (cont)

Unit title: Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis

and Design
Outcome 2

See guidance for Outcome 3.

Outcome 3

It is recommended that Outcomes 2 and 3 be assessed holistically using a single case

study, and that these are linked to the project for H171 35 Software Development: Object
Oriented Programming.

Online and Distance Learning

If this Unit is delivered by open or distance learning methods, additional planning and
resources may be required for candidate support, assessment and quality assurance. A
combination of new and traditional authentication tools may have to be devised for
assessment and re-assessment purposes.

Opportunities for the use of e-assessment

E-assessment may be appropriate for some assessments in this Unit. By e-assessment we
mean assessment which is supported by Information and Communication Technology (ICT),
such as e-testing or the use of e-portfolios or social software. Centres which wish to use
e-assessment must ensure that the national standard is applied to all candidate evidence
and that conditions of assessment as specified in the Evidence Requirements are met,
regardless of the mode of gathering evidence. Further advice is available in SQA Guidelines
on Online Assessment for Further Education (AA1641, March 2003).

Opportunities for developing Core Skills

There may be opportunities to gather evidence towards Core Skills in this Unit, although
there is no automatic certification of Core Skills or Core Skills components.

Candidates will naturally develop the Core Skill of Problem Solving at SCQF level 6 through
identifying requirements and designing an object oriented solution. The candidates could be
required to write a short report detailing their problem solving process, ie how they identified
a suitable class structure for the program given the initial problem statement, in order to fulfil
this requirement.

Disabled candidates and/or those with additional support needs

The additional support needs of individual candidates should be taken into account when
planning learning experiences, selecting assessment instruments, or considering whether
any reasonable adjustments may be required. Further advice can be found on our website
www.sqa.org.uk/assessmentarrangements

H172 35, Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (SCQF level 8) 10
History of changes to Unit

Version Description of change Date

© Scottish Qualifications Authority 2012

This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part for educational purposes provided that no profit
is derived from reproduction and that, if reproduced in part, the source is acknowledged.

Additional copies of this Unit specification can be purchased from the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
Please contact the Business Development and Customer Support team, telephone 0303 333 0330.

H172 35, Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (SCQF level 8) 11
General information for candidates

Unit title: Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis

and Design
This Unit is designed to enable you to develop a knowledge of the theoretical concepts,
underlying principles, scope and role of systems analysis and design undertaken within an
object oriented environment.
The Unit develops your practical systems development skills and will introduce you to a
variety of requirements, engineering techniques and the main modelling and diagramming
techniques used in object oriented systems analysis and design, using UML or similar
modelling notation.
The Unit will also develop your appreciation of the boundaries, strengths and limitations of
object oriented systems analysis and design so that you can select the most appropriate
tools and techniques for undertaking analysis and design given a specific project context.
The study of this Unit will provide a strong foundation for anyone who will be developing
object oriented software, and systems in an object oriented based environment.

On completion of this Unit you should be able to:

1 Describe the object oriented paradigm.

2 Produce a static model of a system.
3 Produce a dynamic model of a system.

H172 35, Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (SCQF level 8) 12