Method for developing business components

Abstract

A process for developing an Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) component by analyzing a business domain to generate functional requirements that models the business domain. The functional requirements are transformed into an EJB component model, preferably using a UML drawing tool. The resulting EJB component is then built from the EJB component model that encompass the business functionality of the business domain. The present process enables the user/developer to research business problems or domain (i.e., business project) and transforms them into EJB components.

What is claimed:  
     
         1 . A method for developing an Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) component, comprising the steps of: 
 (a) analyzing a business domain to determine functional requirements of said business domain;    (b) transforming said functional requirements into an EJB component model; and    (c) building an EJB component in accordance with said EJB component model that encompass the business functionality of said business domain.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of: 
 modifying said functional requirements by a user; and    repeating the steps (b) and (c) to provide a parallel development process.    
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said EJB components are extensible and configurable.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said functional requirements include data and process model of said business domain.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein said EJB component model encapsulates the data and process model of the said business domain.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of analyzing includes the step of generating a list of inputs, each input identifying a resource that relate to said business domain.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising the step of generating eFunction matrix from said list of inputs.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of transforming transforms said functional requirements using an unified modeling language (UML) tool to generate said EJB component model.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein said EJB component model includes a plurality of EJB classes.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the step of building builds said EJB component from at least one of the following class stereotypes: Belonging, Session, Entity, Configurable Entity, Business Policy and Workflow.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of transforming includes the step of mapping eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to said EJB component model.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of analyzing includes the step of dividing said business domain into one or more sub-domains and determining functional requirements for each of said sub-domains; and wherein the step of transforming transforms each of said functional requirements for said sub-domains into said EJB component model.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of building includes the step of generating relational mappings and deployment descriptors.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of building includes the steps of: 
 generating end-user documentation;    developing unit tests to test said EJB component; and    generating a reference implementation of said EJB component.    
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising the step of verifying said end-user documentation to said EJB component.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising the step of packaging said EJB component for deployment with container managed persistence.  
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said EJB component is a Smart component having at least one of following Smart feature: SmartKey, SmartHandle and SmartValue.  
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein said Smart component is an eBusiness Smart component.