Naming, colour-coding:
SBVR, graphism:
USoft Studio, graphism:
USoft Studio, declaration patterns:
About examples and instances
Concepts and instances
A noun concept is a means of recognising and grouping things based on their common properties. Each of the actual vehicles in reality that correspond to the concept car is an instance of the concept. Each of these instances is an example of a car.
An example is not a concept so, on principle, when it appears, it is not colour-coded and not text-decorated (not italic, not underlined).
In USoft Studio formulations, to create an Example: entry, select the formulation for the concept (for instance, “There are car companies”) and then select and press the New, Add Detail button. This allows you to create a non-colour-coded entry with label "Example:”.
In diagrams, you can write examples below the concept box. If you give multiple examples, separate them by commas. Add three dots at the end (...) if you don't mention all instances of the concept:
An example of a concept could be, at the same time, an individual concept. In this case, in USoft Studio, it is automatically double-underlined in diagrams.
In USoft Studio, it is not uncommon that an example appears single-underlined because of some formulation that establishes it as a noun concept because it happens to match one of the sentence patterns for noun concepts:
This is not strictly correct. You need to do something about either the diagram or the formulation.
How many examples?
Most people agree that examples are helpful, but there is a trade-off, first because writing down and maintaining examples for all the concepts in your model is too much work, and second because all the examples will clutter your work too much for readers.
USoft recommends you write down examples only in those cases where you have reason to think that the concept will not be clear without the example(s).
You can give examples not just of noun concepts but of all other concepts, too. It is extremely helpful to keep examples of verb concepts in mind at times when you are making sense of business reality. Examples tell you if it is really appropriate to model the verb concept. Use them as a test:
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