What Is UML?

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UML, as its name implies, is a modeling language. The UML User Guide defines UML as "a graphical language for visualizing, specifying, constructing and documenting the artifacts of a software- intensive system." UML gives you a standard way to write the system's blueprints. In a nutshell , UML offers a way to graphically represent and manipulate an object-oriented (OO) software system. It is not only the representation of the design of a system, but a tool to assist in this design.

UML is actually a synthesis of different modeling languages developed independently by Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh, and Ivar Jacobson, affectionately called the Three Amigos. The software company Rational brought the three modeling languages together under one roof ”thus the name Unified Modeling Language. As stated above, object modeling is simply one part of UML.

However, it is important not to link UML and OO development too closely. In his article "What the UML Is ”and Isn't," Craig Larman states:

Yet unfortunately , in the context of software engineering and the UML diagramming language, acquiring the skills to read and write UML notation seems to sometimes be equated with skill in object-oriented analysis and design. Of course, this is not so, and the latter is much more important than the former. Therefore, I recommend seeking education and educational materials in which intellectual skill in object-oriented analysis and design is paramount rather than UML notation or the use of a case tool.

Although UML is very important, it is much more important to learn the OO skills first. Learning UML before learning OO concepts is similar to learning how to read an electrical diagram without first knowing anything about electricity.

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Object-Oriented Thought Process
Object-Oriented Thought Process, The (3rd Edition)
ISBN: 0672330164
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 164
Authors: Matt Weisfeld

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