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The common approach when working with FMC is to start with a high-level diagram of the compositional structure of a system. This “big picture” diagram serves as a reference in the communication with all involved stakeholders of the project. Later on, the high-level diagram is iteratively refined to model technical details of the system. Complementary diagrams for processes observed in the system or value domains found in the system are introduced as needed.
== Diagram Types ==
== Compositional structure diagram==▼
FMC uses three diagram types to model different aspects of a system:
* '''Compositional Structure Diagram''' depicts the static structure of a system. This diagram type is also known as FMC Block Diagram
* '''Dynamic Structure Diagram''' depicts processes that can be observed in a system. This diagram type is also known as FMC Petri-net
* '''Value Range Structure Diagram''' depicts structures of values found in the system. This diagram type is also known as FMC E/R Diagram
All FMC diagrams are bipartite graphs. Each [[Bipartite graph|bipartite graph]] consists of two [[disjoint sets]] of vertices with the condition that no [[vertex]] is connected to another vortex of the same set. In FMC diagrams, members of one set are represented by angular shapes, and members of the other set are represented by curved shapes. Each element in an FMC diagram can be refined by another diagram of the same type, provided that the combined graph is also bipartite. This mechanism allows modeling all relevant layers of abstraction with the same notation.
Compositional structure diagrams (also known as block diagrams) show the systems structure as a composition of collaborating system components.
:"There are active system components called agents and passive system components called locations. Each agent processes information and thus serves a well-defined purpose. Therefore an agent stores information in storages and communicates via channels or shared storages with other agents. Channels and storages are (virtual) locations where information can be observed." <ref>[http://www.fmc-modeling.org/notation_reference/ fmc-modeling.org Notations Reference]</ref>
=== Dynamic
Dynamic structures are derived from [[petri net]]s.
:"They are used to express system behavior over time, depicting the actions performed by the agents. So they clarify how a system is working and how communication takes place between different agents." <ref>[http://www.fmc-modeling.org/notation_reference/ fmc-modeling.org Notations Reference]</ref>
=== Value
Value range structure diagrams (also known as FMC Entity Relationship Diagrams) can be compared with the [[Entity-relationship model]].
:"[They] are used to depict value range structures or topics as mathematical structures. Value range structures describe observable values at locations within the system whereas topic diagrams allow a much wider usage in order to cover all correlations between interesting points." <ref>[http://www.fmc-modeling.org/notation_reference/ fmc-modeling.org Notations Reference]</ref>
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