Summary

The patterns in this chapter help you make effective use of the UML in building and managing models. Like those in Chapter 4, "Patterns of Style," they're modeling idioms, lower-level patterns that are specifically about the details of modeling. Most of them can be applied to many types of diagrams, in all kinds of modeling situations. They're general solutions to modeling problems with a specific UML flavor.

As you create your own local dialect of the UML within your organization, additional and more local idioms may become obvious. These should be documented and reviewed over time, becoming part of the vocabulary of the development process itself. Some of these patterns may even replace or refine the ones in this book.

This chapter and Chapter 4 are just a sampling of the modeling idioms that are embedded in the UML itself, or the better books written about it. Particularly good sources are Objects, Components, and Frameworks with UML: The Catalysis Approach by Desmond D'Souza and Alan Wills (1998); and The Unified Modeling Language User Guideby Ivar Jacobson, Grady Booch, and James Rumbaugh (1998a). D'Souza and Wills provide good material on documentation in general, which is worth consulting for a different look at how models should be managed. The UML User Guide has tips about solutions to standard modeling problems that in many cases lend themselves to being generalized as patterns.

The patterns in the following chapters are usually not idioms. They're concerned with applying the UML in constructing system models at various levels. The patterns in the last two chapters should be kept in mind when considering the use of these patterns.



A UML Pattern Language
A UML Pattern Language (Software Engineering)
ISBN: 157870118X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 100
Authors: Paul Evitts

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