Functional refinement is beneficial to object-oriented (OO) software development, especially for problems with more complex functions. However, the use of functional refinement in OO software development has not received much attention. This paper proposes an enhanced data flow diagram (DFD), called data flow net (DF net), for specifying use-cases through functional decomposition. It proposes a novel approach to complement existing OO software development methods with functional decomposition for realizing use-cases, especially those with more complex functions. In the requirements analysis stage, the proposed approach realizes use-cases through functional refinement and specifies them in DF nets. In the design and implementation stages, it transforms the DF nets systematically and precisely into OO design and implementation. The approach is amenable to automation and a prototype has been developed to support the transformation process. In the development of an OO system, it is seamless to realize some of the use-cases using the proposed approach and the remaining use-cases in the same target system using any existing OO software development methods.

F. Barbier et al. (2003) introduced a formal definition for the semantics of the whole-part relationship in the Unified Modeling Language (UML). This paper reports some discrepancies that appeared previously and proposes solutions to these discrepancies.