A domain model is a high-level, logical view of the concepts and relationships that matter to an organisation — a shared map of the information landscape that cuts across business units, applications, and technical environments. This introductory white paper explains what domain models are for, how to read and construct them using a clear notation derived from UML, and how to enrich them with metadata to support data governance, security policy, integration planning, and project scoping. It is a concise, accessible reference for architects, analysts, and anyone working to establish shared understanding of business information across an enterprise.
Beyond UML: A Practical Method for Delivering Commercial Software Systems
UML brought valuable standardisation to object-oriented analysis and design, but leaves critical gaps: no standard process, weak dynamic modelling, and little architectural guidance for building flexible, maintainable systems. This book presents the Inspired Method — developed and refined over decades of commercial practice — as a comprehensive alternative covering the full lifecycle from business analysis through design, architecture, and delivery. It is aimed at developers and analysts building multi-user, database-backed commercial applications who need a rigorous yet accessible approach that actually works in practice.
Beyond Use Cases: A Better Approach to Business Process Modelling
UML's Use Cases are widely used for requirements capture, but they encourage a system-centric view too early and lack the semantics to properly model complete business processes — including flow, costs, timing, organisational responsibility, and manual activities. This paper proposes a richer process modelling notation that forms a superset of Use Cases and Activity Diagrams, and transitions seamlessly from high-level stakeholder models all the way to rigorous design specifications. The approach, developed and refined through teaching and consulting, addresses a persistent gap in object-oriented analysis and enterprise engineering.