Section 5.6. What s Next

5.6. What's Next

Class diagrams show the types of objects in your system. A useful next step is to look at object diagrams since they show how classes come alive at runtime as object instances, which is useful if you want to show runtime configurations. Object diagrams are covered in Chapter 6.

Composite structures are a diagram type that loosely shows context sensitive class diagrams and patterns in your software. Composite structures are described in Chapter 11.

After you've decided the responsibilities of the classes in your system, it's common to then create sequence and communication diagrams to show interactions between the parts. Sequence diagrams can be found in Chapter 7; communication diagrams are covered in Chapter 8.

It's also common to step back and organize your classes into packages. Package diagrams allow you to view dependencies at a higher level, helping you understand the stability of your software. Package diagrams are described in Chapter 13.