Chapter 3 Building Structural Diagrams

Classes (OOM)

A class is a description of a set of objects that have a similar structure and behavior, and share the same attributes, operations, relationships, and semantics.

A class can be created in the following diagrams:

• Class Diagram
• Composite Structure Diagram

The structure of a class is described by its attributes and associations. Its behavior is described by its operations.

Classes, and the relationships that you create between them, form the basic structure of an OOM. A class defines a concept within the application being modeled, such as:

• a physical thing (like a car),
• a business thing (like an order)
• a logical thing (like a broadcasting schedule),
• an application thing (like an OK button),
• a behavioral thing (like a task)

The following example shows the class Aircraft with its attributes (range and length) and operation (startengines).

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