Checklist: Platform Independent Model
This checklist identifies the key elements to look for in a PIM.
Relationships
Main Description
The PIM is an evolving artifact. It realizes use cases and becomes increasingly complete and complex as the design iterations add more functionality.
Check Items
Is the PIM organized around collaborations?
The PIM should be a coherent set of collaborations, each collaboration typically realizing a single use case. Note that the collaborations may share elements.
Does the PIM only contain essential elements?
The PIM should represent the essential semantic elements - represented in classes, objects, relations, states, activities, messages, and sequences. It should not contain technology, design, or optimization decisions. Those can be found in the Platform Specific Model.
Does the PIM contain one or more structural views?
The PIM should contain at least one class (or structure) diagram showing the elements and their relations.
Does the PIM contain multiple scenario views showing the interaction of the collaborating elements?
The PIM should contain a set of sequence (or communication or timing) diagrams showing how the contained elements collaborate over time.
Does the PIM contain relevant behavioral views?
The PIM should depict the behavior of all stateful classes in state machines, and all non-trivial algorithms in activity diagrams. Each state and activity model should be in a separate diagram.