The Unified Modeling Language

2002

Abstract. One distinctive characteristic of object-oriented data models over traditional database systems is that they provide more expressive power in schema definition. Nevertheless, the defining power of objectoriented models is still somewhat limited, mainly because it is commonly accepted that part of the semantics of the application can be represented within methods.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2002

A picture is worth a thousand words. Most people refer to the Unified Modeling Language as UML. The UML is an international industry standard graphical notation for describing software analysis and designs. When a standardized notation is used, there is little room for misinterpretation and ambiguity. Therefore, standardization provides for efficient communication (a.k.a. " a picture is worth a thousand words ") and leads to fewer errors caused by misunderstanding. The U in UML stands for unified because the UML is a unification and standardization of earlier modeling notations of Booch, Rumbaugh, Jacobson, Mellor, Shlaer, Coad, and Wirf-Brock, among others. The UML most closely reflects the combined work of Rumbaugh, Jacobson, and Booch – sometimes called the three amigos. The UML has been accepted as a standard by the Object Management Group 1 (OMG). The OMG is a non-profit organization with about 700 members that sets standards for distributed object-oriented computing. In this appendix, we bring together for ease of reference five fundamental UML models: use case, class, sequence, state, and activity diagrams. The intent is not for this to be your only UML reference, but to succinctly provide you with the essential 20% of the UML that will provide you with the 80% of the capability you will use often.