Analysis Patterns: Reusable Object Models

15. Association Patterns

Associations are a common construct in analysis and design methods. Often a particular situation will recur with an association. A special notation may be introduced, but it is possible to model the situation without this notation. A useful way of thinking about this is to consider the situation to be a pattern. This association pattern can be represented in a base form, or a new notation can be introduced as a shorthand. Both are equivalent in meaning.

This chapter focuses on three such situations. An associative type (15.1) occurs when you want to treat an association as a type, typically by giving it some features. A keyed mapping (15.2) is used to give a lookup table, or dictionary, behavior to a mapping. Each of ...