definition a set of activities and/or constraints which describe
how an activity is done; in general there may be many different ways for
an activity to be carried out
synonyms refinement; expansion
variants --
translations the vertical dimension of the activity model
denotes decomposition
examples The activity of "treating a patient'' may vary
considerably according to the condition of the patient, the experience
of the doctor, the facilities in the clinic, etc. etc.
term in other fields Note that a decomposition is not a
recursive hierarchy of activities defined by the same model: we
deliberately make no assumptions as to how the decomposition is modelled
and carried out. Decomposition does not imply abstraction on
hierarchical lines. For example, an activity can be decomposed into some
sub-activities, one of which has a tail end recursion which repeats the
same top level activity being modelled.