Behaviour Structuring

This chapter presents two methods for the structuring of a behaviour as a means to master the complexity of designing a realistic system by representing it as a composition of smaller sub-behaviours, namely causality-oriented structuring and constraint-oriented structuring. Causality-oriented structuring decomposes the causality relation by separating the causality condition from the result action such that the causality condition and the result action can be allocated to separate sub-behaviours. These sub-behaviours are linked by exit points and entry points. This is a syntactical operation that is also used to define recursive behaviour. Constraint-oriented structuring decomposes an (inter)action into interaction contributions such that the interaction contributions and parts of the causality relation can be allocated to separate sub-behaviours, linked by interactions. We show various possibilities for the decomposition of causality relations. Each structuring method can be used separately and in combination with the other. Both methods allow designers to decompose a given monolithic behaviour into a composition of smaller monolithic sub-behaviours, and to compose sub-behaviours (monolithic or not) into larger structured behaviours.