Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcqTrlL_Htw

This video from YouTube is titled “Design Patterns GRASP // Object Oriented Analysis and Design (ICS).” As stated in the title, it goes over the design patterns of GRASP, or General Responsibility Assignment Software Patterns. GRASP is a set of 9 principles that relate to object-oriented design that help developers/engineers assign certain responsibilities to certain variables, classes, objects, etc. in software. The overall purpose of GRASP isn’t to create “fancy” code, but rather to create maintainable and reusable code/software. The 9 principles are information expert, creator, controller, low coupling, high cohesion, polymorphism, pure fabrication, indirection, and protected variations. “Information expert” places responsibility on classes that have the required information to complete it, wanted behaviors and data are put together. “Creator” places responsibility for the creation of instances of classes to classes that would use it. “Controller” places responsibility for handling system events to a class that describes the event, known as the controller. “Low coupling” states that classes should be as independent as they can be from other classes. “High cohesion” states that classes should have clear purposes with responsibilities that relate to it. “Polymorphism” is implemented so new behaviors can be added without changing preexisting code. “Pure fabrication” states that new classes should be created if there isn’t an already existing one that fulfills a desired requirement. “Indirection” states that dependencies among classes should be minimized so changes can be made without having an impact on other parts of the system. Lastly, “protected variations” encourages developers to design the system in a way that variations in behaviors are negated through encapsulation. 

I chose this particular source because we haven’t covered this topic in class yet and it seemed interesting, I found the topic from the syllabus. This video had a low amount of views and I wanted to give it a chance. After watching the video, I appreciated the fact that the information was presented in a straightforward manner and offered visual examples for each of the 9 principles of GRASP. After learning about Agile methodologies, it was interesting to learn about GRASP, because in my opinion it seems as though instead of being a set of principles of workplace improvement, GRASP seems to be a set of principles for actual work improvement. Overall, the material impacted me in a positive way because I appreciate the idea of everything in a system/software having a certain responsibility, and can definitely see how this will benefit me in the future when I work on more projects related to software development. I will certainly keep GRASP in mind for these future projects. 

From the blog CS@Worcester – Shawn In Tech by Shawn Budzinski and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.