A Software Machine Analysis and Design Methodology

Every software system is, in essence, a data processing machine. Therefore, the most useful abstraction for analysis, design, and all subsequent stages of software system development and maintenance is to treat it as such - i.e. to treat a software system as data processing machine. In this paper, a novel systematic methodology for software machine analysis and design is presented. This paper also introduces a new type of UML diagram called software machine diagram, which acts as the unifying piece for other types of UML diagrams. A number of advantages offered by this approach as compared to conventional object-oriented analysis and design approaches are outlined in the paper.