UML Intro

Unified Modeling Language

History of UML ⌘

UML was developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh (The Three Amigos)

UML versions⌘

• 0.8 Booch & Rumbaugh 1995
• 0.9 The Three Amigos 1996
• 1.1 OMG 1997
• 1.2-1.5 OMG refinements 1998-2003
• 2.0 OMG major review and redesign 2003-2005
• 2.1.1, 2.1.2 OMG 2007
• 2.2 OMG 2009
• 2.3 OMG 2010
• 2.4.1 OMG 2011
• 2.5 OMG 2012 "In process" (beta) version

Overview ⌘

• OMG Standard
• The Unified Modeling Language (UML)
• Data modeling, business modeling (work flows), object modeling, and component modeling
• UML aims to be a standard modeling language which can model concurrent and distributed systems
• UML is a de-facto industry standard
• UML models may be automatically transformed to other representations (e.g. Java, PHP)
• UML is extensible, through profiles, stereotypes and tagged values
• A lot of other languages are based on UML (SysML, SoaML)
• Usually default language for a lot of architecture frameworks (MoDAF, DoDAF, NAF)

UML Specification ⌘

• Infrastructure - core metamodel on which the Superstructure is based
• Superstructure - notation and semantics for diagrams and their model elements

• Object Constraint Language (OCL)
• UML Diagram Interchange

UML Features⌘

• Does not define method (see Unified Process)
• UML defines both:
  • UML model (contains documentation and all relations)
  • UML diagrams (partial graphic representation of a system's model)
• UML can model both views of the system:
  • Static (structural)
  • Dynamic (behavioral)
• Contains 14 different diagrams

UML Diagrams ⌘

Structure diagrams⌘

Structure diagrams represent the structure, they are used extensively in documenting the software architecture of software systems.

Class diagram⌘

Describes the structure of a system by showing the system's classes, their attributes, and the relationships among the classes.

Other structure diagrams⌘

• Component diagram: describes how a software system is split up into components and shows the dependencies among these components.
• Composite structure diagram: describes the internal structure of a classifier and the collaborations that this structure makes possible.
• Deployment diagram: describes the hardware used in system implementations and the execution environments and artifacts deployed on the hardware.
• Object diagram: shows a complete or partial view of the structure of an example modeled system at a specific time.
• Package diagram: describes how a system is split up into logical groupings by showing the dependencies among these groupings.
• Profile diagram: operates at the metamodel level to show stereotypes as classes with the <<stereotype>> stereotype, and profiles as packages with the <<profile>> stereotype.

Behavior diagrams⌘

Behavior diagrams illustrate the behavior of a system, they are used extensively to describe the functionality of software systems.

Activity diagram⌘

Describes the business and operational step-by-step workflows of components in a system.

Use Case diagram⌘

Describes the functionality provided by a system in terms of actors, their goals represented as use cases, and any dependencies among those use cases.

State machine diagram⌘

Describes the states and state transitions of the system.

Interaction diagrams⌘

Interaction diagrams, a subset of behavior diagrams, emphasize the flow of control and data among the things in the system being modeled:

Sequence diagram⌘

Shows how objects communicate with each other in terms of a sequence of messages. Also indicates the lifespans of objects relative to those messages.

Other Interaction diagrams⌘

• Communication diagram: shows the interactions between objects or parts in terms of sequenced messages.
• Interaction overview diagram: provides an overview in which the nodes represent communication diagrams.
• Timing diagrams: a specific type of interaction diagram where the focus is on timing constraints.

UML 2 Metamodel⌘

• UML is a language
• UML metamodel is a class model which describes UML
• UML is defined in UML!
• Just as English is described in English in dictionaries

UML 2 Metamodel Exercise ⌘

UML 2 Specification - how to read?⌘

Demonstration: How to read UML 2 Specification?