Firstly… What is UML?
The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has quickly become the de-facto standard for building Object-Oriented software.
The OMG specification states:
“The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a graphical language for visualizing,
specifying, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of a software-intensive system.
The UML offers a standard way to write a system’s blueprints, including conceptual
things such as business processes and system functions as well as concrete things such
as programming language statements, database schemas, and reusable software
components.”
The important point to note here is that UML is a ‘language’ for specifying and not a method or procedure. The UML is used to define a software system; to detail the artefacts in the system, to document and construct – it is the language that the blueprint is written in. The UML may be used in a variety of ways to support a software development methodology (such as the Rational Unified Process) – but in itself it does not specify that methodology or process.
A GOOD PLACE TO START:…..
Sparx Systems UML Tutorial
(http://www.sparxsystems.com/uml-tutorial.html)
OMG’s (Object Management Group) Unified Modeling Language (UML) Resource Page
(http://www.uml.org/)
Getting Started with UML
The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is OMG’s most-used specification, and the way the world models not only application structure, behavior, and architecture, but also business process and data structure.
UML, along with the Meta Object Facility (MOF), also provides a key foundation for OMG’s Model-Driven Architecture®, which unifies every step of development and integration from business modeling, through architectural and application modeling, to development, deployment, maintenance, and evolution.
OMG is a not-for-profit technology standards consortium; our members define and maintain the UML specification which we publish in the series of documents linked on this page for your free download. Software providers of every kind build tools that conform to these specifications. To model in UML, you’ll have to obtain a compliant modeling tool from one of these providers and learn how to use it.
If you’re new to modeling and UML, start with the Introduction to UML, here, and possibly this piece on the benefits of modeling to your application development cycle.
- The current UML specification for free download
- Standard UML Profiles and related specifications
- Articles about UML
- UML Resource Pages
- UML Tutorials
- OMG’s UML Professional Certification Program
- Lists of UML Tools
- Materials about Modeling Methodologies
Sparx Systems UML Tutorial
(http://www.sparxsystems.com/uml-tutorial.html)
Case Study: Use Case Diagram Exercise:
Decisions at the touch of a button
Coca-Cola Japan puts the fizz back in vending machine sales
(http://dssresources.com/cases/coca-colajapan/index.html)
(Schwartz, K. D., “Decisions at the touch of a button”, August 19, 2005, at URL DSSResources.COM.)
How to Identify Project Use Cases
(http://www.kajabity.com/2010/04/how-to-identify-project-use-cases/)
Useful for the Simple Blogging System Use Cases