This book assumes familiarity with threads (in a language such as Ada, C#, or Java) and introduces the entity-life modeling (ELM) design approach for certain kinds of multithreaded software. ELM focuses on "reactive systems," which continuously interact with the problem environment. These "reactive systems" include embedded systems, as well as such interactive systems as cruise controllers and automated teller machines.

Part I covers two fundamentals: program-language thread support and state diagramming. These are necessary for understanding ELM and are provided primarily for reference. Part II covers ELM from different angles. Part III positions ELM relative to other design approaches.

Bo I. Sandén, PhD, serves as Professor of Computer Science at Colorado Technical University. He has also taught at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Prior to his teaching career, Dr. Sandén worked at Phillips Elektronikindustrier in Stockholm, Sweden, and has significant professional experience as a systems analyst, project manager, programmer, and consultant. He devotes his research activities primarily to software design and has published extensively on Jackson system development, concurrency in Ada and Java, and entity-life modeling.