Summary

Making models part of the development process offers significant benefits. Models help to

• Improve communication of the system design among the project team

• Explore system requirements and behavior with the customer

• Improve the entire team's understanding of how the system operates

• Validate the design against the primary use-case scenarios

Using modeling tools to construct UML diagrams further enhances the benefits of a model-based approach to development:

• Roundtrip support keeps models current on iterative development projects.

• Checking of UML syntax helps ensure the accurate communication of designs.

• Validation of the design using interaction diagrams provides an early alert of design issues.

The next chapter looks at code generation techniques and investigates how code generators provide an effective mechanism for incorporating change on a project.

Additional Information

Martin Fowler's book UML Distilled [Fowler, 2003] covers the different UML models and the associated UML notation.

The designers of the UML have also written a comprehensive guide to their creation, The Unified Modeling Language User Guide [Booch, 1998].

Scott Ambler is a keen advocate of modeling techniques and devised his own development process based on models. Information on his Agile Modeling process can be found at http://www.agilemodeling.com.