Object-oriented Modeling of a Bus Tour Travel Agency using Design/CPN
Daniel Moldt, Marc Netzebandt, and Frank Wienberg
Address
University of Hamburg,Department of Computer Science,
Vogt-Kölln-Straße 30,
22527 Hamburg,
Germany,
phone: +49 40 42883 2247
fax: +49 40 42883 2246
{moldt, 1netzeba, wienberg}@informatik.uni-hamburg.de
Abstract
Using Design/CPN during the last years two larger models have been build. The first case study used a Structured Analysis approach for a travel agency. The model was developed in the context of an ARC-project between the University of Brighton and the University of Hamburg by Marc Netzebandt as his Studienarbeit (first diploma thesis without a marking). An already existing model from the regular teaching schedule of a Structured Analysis (SA) course at the University of Brighton was taken and partially modeled with Design/CPN. An approach similar to SA was used, however, the way to proceed was adopted to fulfil the needs of Coloured Petri nets instead of dataflow diagrams etc. The model comprised some 50 Design/CPN pages which had a relatively simple structure due to the strong relation to SA.The second model was developed in the context of a diploma thesis of Marc Netzebandt using Object-Oriented Analysis (OOA). He simplified the application area to a bus tour agency to allow the intensive study of object-oriented concepts in the context of Design/CPN. The model had to cover the object-oriented "infrastructure" to execute the model. Due to the concentration on the investigation of an adequate modeling of object-oriented concepts the way to proceed was not the main point of interest. Again the model has more than 50 pages in Design/CPN, however, the complexity of each page was much higher.
The results of the projects will be briefly presented and then discussed. The problem of adopting commercial approaches, especially object-oriented ones, to Petri nets will be the main focus of the talk. The specific problems of SA and OOA will be taken into account. Both models are executable, but demonstrate the urgent need for higher abstraction concepts when Petri nets should be used directly for traditional approaches. The latter are optimized in some ways to their specific techniques, this becomes obvious when trying to apply them in the Petri net context. The two models can be seen as two larger case studies that reflect some specific applications.
Keywords
Case Study, Coloured Petri nets, Design/CPN, Modeling, Object-Oriented Analysis (OOA), Structured Analysis, Travel Agency