The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a standard language for specifying, visu

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As the strategic value of software increases for many companies, the industry looks for techniques to automate the production of software and to improve quality and reduce cost and time-to-market. These techniques include component technology, visual programming, patterns and frameworks. businesses also seek techniques to manage the complexity of systems as they increase in scope and scale. In particular, they recognize the need to solve recurring architectural problems, such as physical distribution, concurrency, replication, security, load balancing and fault tolerance. Additionally, the development for the World Wide Web, while making some things simpler, has exacerbated these architectural problems. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) was designed to respond to these needs.Use cases are a relatively easy UML diagram to draw, but this is a very simplified example. This example is only meant as an introduction to the UML and use cases. If you would like to learn more see the Resources page for more detailed resources on UML. Start by listing a sequence of steps a user might take in order to complete an action. For example a user placing an order with a sales company might follow these steps. 1. Browse catalog and select items. 2. Call sales representative. 3. Supply shipping information. 4. Supply payment information. 5. Receive conformation number from salesperson. These steps would generate this simple use case diagram: This example shows the customer as a actor because the customer is using the ordering system. The diagram takes the simple steps listed above and shows them as actions the customer might perform. The salesperson could also be included in this use case diagram because the salesperson is also interacting with the ordering system. From this simple diagram the requirements of the ordering system can easily be derived. The system will need to be able to perform actions for all of the use cases listed. As the project progresses other use cases might appear. The customer might have a need to add an item to an order that has already been placed. This diagram can easily be expanded until a complete description of the ordering system is derived capturing all of the requirements that the system will need to perform. Class Diagrams ________________________________________ Class diagrams are widely used to describe the types of objects in a system and their relationships. Class diagrams model class structure and contents using design elements such as classes, packages and objects.2 Class diagrams describe three different perspectives when designing a system, conceptual, specification, and implementation.1 These perspectives become evident as the diagram is created and help solidify the design. This example is only meant as an introduction to the UML and class diagrams. If you would like to learn more see the Resources page for more detailed resources on UML. Classes are composed of three things: a name, attributes, and operations. Below is an example of a class. Class diagrams also display relationships such as containment, inheritance, associations and others.2 Below is an example of an associative relationship: The association relationship is the most common relationship in a class diagram. The association shows the relationship between instances of classes. For example, the class Order is associated with the class Customer. The multiplicity of the association denotes the number of objects that can participate in then relationship.1 For example, an Order object can be associated to only one customer, but a customer can be associated to many orders. Another common relationship in class diagrams is a generalization. A generalization is used when two classes are similar, but have some differences. Look at the generalization below: In this example the classes Corporate Customer and Personal Customer have some similarities such as name and address, but each class has some of its own attributes and operations. The class Customer is a general form of both the Corporate Customer and Personal Customer classes.1 This allows the designers to just use the Customer class for modules and do not require in-depth representation of each type of customer. When to Use: Class Diagrams Class diagrams are used in nearly all Object Oriented software designs. Use them to describe the Classes of the system and their relationships to each other. How to Draw: Class Diagrams Class diagrams are some of the most difficult UML diagrams to draw. To draw detailed and useful diagrams a person would have to study UML and Object Oriented principles for a long time. Therefore, this page will give a very high level overview of the process. To find list of where to find more information see the Resources page. Before drawing a class diagram consider the three different perspectives of the system the diagram will present; conceptual, specification, and implementation. Try not to focus on one perspective and try see how they all work together. When designing classes consider what attributes and operations it will have. Then try to determine how instances of the classes will interact with each other. These are the very first steps of many in developing a class diagram. However, using just these basic techniques one can develop a complete view of the software system. This example is only meant as an introduction to the UML and use cases. If you would like to learn more see the Resources page for more detailed resources on UML. Interaction Diagrams ________________________________________ Interaction diagrams model the behavior of use cases by describing the way groups of objects interact to complete the task. The two kinds of interaction diagrams are sequence and collaboration diagrams. This example is only meant as an introduction to the UML and interaction diagrams. If you would like to learn more see the Resources page for a list of more detailed resources on UML. When to Use: Interaction Diagrams Interaction diagrams are used when you want to model the behavior of several objects in a use case. They demonstrate how the objects collaborate for the behavior. Interaction diagrams do not give a in depth representation of the behavior. If you want to see what a specific object is doing for several use cases use a state diagram. To see a particular behavior over many use cases or threads use an activity diagrams. 1 How to Draw: Interaction Diagrams Sequence diagrams, collaboration diagrams, or both diagrams can be used to demonstrate the interaction of objects in a use case. Sequence diagrams generally show the sequence of events that occur. Collaboration diagrams demonstrate how objects are statically connected. Both diagrams are relatively simple to draw and contain similar elements. 1 Sequence diagrams: Sequence diagrams demonstrate the behavior of objects in a use case by describing the objects and the messages they pass. the diagrams are read left to right and descending. The example below shows an object of class 1 start the behavior by sending a message to an object of class 2. Messages pass between the different objects until the object of class 1 receives the final message. Below is a slightly more complex example. The light blue vertical rectangles the objects activation while the green vertical dashed lines represent the life of the object. The green vertical rectangles represent when a particular object has control. The represents when the object is destroyed. This diagrams also shows conditions for messages to be sent to other object. The condition is listed between brackets next to the message. For example, a [condition] has to be met before the object of class 2 can send a message() to the object of class 3. The next diagram shows the beginning of a sequence diagram for placing an order. The object an Order Entry Window is created and sends a message to an Order object to prepare the order. Notice the the names of the objects are followed by a colon. The names of the classes the objects belong to do not have to be listed. However the colon is required to denote that it is the name of an object following the objectName:className naming system. Next the Order object checks to see if the item is in stock and if the [InStock] condition is met it sends a message to create an new Delivery Item object.