Part I: UML and System Development

Chapter List

Chapter 1:What’s UML About, Alfie?

Chapter 2: Following Best Practices

Part Overview

In this part . . .

Building systems or software isn’t that tough if you can communicate with your clients, co-workers, managers, and tools. Unfortunately, as your problems get harder and more complex, the risks that emerge from miscommunication become greater — and more severe when they do crop up.

Fortunately, there’s a straightforward, visual language that you can use that will help promote more precise and more efficient communication about the nature of your system in all its aspects — software, requirements, architectures, designs, design patterns, and implementations. This language is UML, the Unified Modeling Language. The newest version, UML 2, has become more powerful and more useful than ever.

Starting here, we cover the basics of UML. You find out how it may fit your situation, how and when you can use it, and what it’s good for. We give you just as much background in history, terminology, and basic principles as you’ll need to take advantage of UML’s highly productive features.