Section 1.5. Putting UML to Work


1.5. Putting UML to Work

A UML model provides a view of a systemoften just one of many views needed to actually build or document the complete system. Users new to UML can fall into the trap of trying to model everything about their system with a single diagram and end up missing critical information. Or, at the other extreme, they may try to incorporate every possible UML diagram into their model, thereby overcomplicating things and creating a maintenance nightmare.

Becoming proficient with UML means understanding what each diagram has to offer and knowing when to apply it. There will be many times when a concept could be expressed using any number of diagrams; pick the one(s) that will mean the most to your users.

Each chapter of this book describes a type of diagram and gives examples of its use. There are times when you may need to have more than one diagram to capture all the relevant details for a single part of your system. For example, you may need a statechart diagram to show how an embedded controller processes input from a user as well as a timing diagram to show how the controller interacts with the rest of the system as a result of that input.

You should also consider your audience when creating models. A test engineer may not care about the low-level implementation (sequence diagram) of a component, only the external interfaces it offers (component diagram). Be sure to consider who will be using each diagram you produce and make it meaningful to that person.

1.5.1. UML Profiles

In addition to a variety of diagram types, UML is designed to be extended. You can informally extend UML by adding constraints, stereotypes, tagged values, and notes to your models, or you can use the formal UML extension and define a full UML profile. A UML profile is a collection of stereotypes and constraints on elements that map the otherwise generic UML to a specific problem domain or implementation. For example, there are profiles for CORBA, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), fault tolerance, database modeling, and testing. See Chapter 11 for more information on UML 2.0 Profiles.




UML 2.0 in a Nutshell
UML 2.0 in a Nutshell (In a Nutshell (OReilly))
ISBN: 0596007957
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 132

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