Overview
Throughout this book, we've seen detailed examples of using Visio and UML in various development scenarios. The purpose of this chapter is to take a step back and look at the role of Visio and UML in the entire software development lifecycle. In effect, we'll be discussing how we document our work at different stages of a typical development project using Visio and UML. Most developers know from first hand experience that participating in a development project or even managing that project requires us to play different roles as a project progresses from requirements through design and coding and into production. As many readers already understand, the role and types of UML artifacts we produce also change as a project matures. Hopefully, at the end of this chapter you'll take away some additional insights into using Visio and UML in the course of working on your own projects. Here are the goals for this chapter:
So here's how the discussion will unfold. We'll review the major stages of a typical development project, their basic purpose, and their outcomes and how those outcomes flow into subsequent steps. Then we'll jump right into discussing each project stage in some detail including the needs of each stage, the needs of the users in each stage and how Visio and the UML fulfill those needs. Along the way, we cover the most common UML diagrams, their construction, and some Visio-specific details. In terms of the UML, here are the diagrams we will encounter again:
We'll review the purpose of each diagram when we first encounter it in our discussion and point out relevant project-stage-specific uses or other details where appropriate.
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