Description
The OV-6b is a graphical method of describing how an Operational Activity responds to various events by changing its state. The diagram represents the sets of events to which the Activities respond (by taking an action to move to a new state) as a function of its current state. Each transition specifies an event and an action.
An OV-6b can be used to describe the detailed sequencing of activities or work flow in the business process. The OV-6b is particularly useful for describing critical sequencing of behaviors and timing of operational activities that cannot be adequately described in the OV-5b Operational Activity Model. The OV-6b relates events and states. A change of state is called a transition. Actions may be associated with a given state or with the transition between states in response to stimuli (e.g., triggers and events).
The intended usage of the OV-6b includes:
- Analysis of business events.
- Behavioral analysis.
- Identification of constraints.
Implementation
OV-6b can be represented using a UML State Machine diagram.
The OV-6b reflects the fact that the explicit sequencing of activities in response to external and internal events is not fully expressed in OV-5a Operational Activity Decomposition Tree or OV-5b Operational Activity Model.