1.4 Goals of the UML-F profile

The intention of the UML profile for framework architectures is the definition of a UML subset, enriched with a few UML-compliant extensions, allowing the annotation of such artifacts. Thus, the resulting profile that we call UML-F does not correspond to a specific domain, but to framework technology. The UML-F profile presented in the book pursues the following goals.

UML-F provides the notational elements to precisely annotate and document well-known design patterns. There currently exists only rather limited UML support for that purpose.
UML-F is itself in the spirit of frameworks straightforward extensibility is the key to providing a suitable means for documenting any framework pattern, including those that are produced in the future.
UML-F comprises a lean, mnemonic set of notational elements.
UML-F is built on the UML standard that is, the extensions should be defined on the basis of existing UML extension mechanisms.
The notational elements are adequate for integration in UML tool environments. For example, tools should be able to create hyperlinks between annotated framework patterns and the corresponding online pattern documentation.

More profiles will be standardized by OMG in the future, sound proposals from various communities will get the process of defining and standardizing UML profiles started. In that sense, this book sets the stage for the UML profile for framework architectures.