Summary

By any estimation, these patterns don't represent a complete canon of style for the UML. And, being patterns, they shouldn't be considered prescriptive. Rather, they give the modeler a core of proven, broadly applicable UML diagramming techniques. The modeler can use these as a starting point for a personal modeling style, or within an organization or project as part of an overall architectural style. In a development project, style shouldn't normally be a matter of personal choice; instead it should be a project level or organizational decision. However, any standardized style should address the problems that these patterns tackle.

The architectural style for a system provides the basis for a design dialect that will be the common vocabulary for the development effort. Jacobson, Griss, and Jonsson describe architectural style as "the set of all (good) models that can be built" (1997, 51). D'Souza and Wills provide a separate package for containing the rules and "rules-of-thumb" that combine to provide an architectural style (1998).

For a more detailed discussion of some of these points, see Chapter 10, "The UML in Context."