Part 1: The ABCs of UML diagramming

By Nishadha

Consider this the prequel to Part 1 and Part 2 of what I posted earlier on UML diagrams. I do believe that these posts are perfect in the sense that they would give you the “big picture” of the UML universe. I understand what was posted earlier on may have been complex to a certain degree, which is why this particular post is intended for those who are just getting their hands wet with UML diagramming. So to make it easy to “digest”, I will break this post up into two or possibly three easy-to-understand parts as well.

While earlier we spoke about the types of UML diagrams, let’s concentrate on the building blocks of UML in this post. These building blocks can be defined as (1) Things, (2) Relationships and (3) Diagrams.

(1) Things: These are known to be the most important when it comes to the building blocks of UML. They can be further divided into (a) Structural, (b) Behavioral, (c) Grouping and (d) Annotational.

STRUCTURAL

The static parts of a model are defined as structural things. The latter can be defined as conceptual and physical elements. These structural things are defined below.

Class:

This defines an object set that possess responsibilities that are similiar.

Interface:

This indicates a set of operations that would detail the responsibility of a class.

Use case:

This is representative of a set of actions, which are performed by a system that is goal specific.

Component:

The physical part of a system is defined as this.

Node:

A node is indicated as a physical element, which usually is present during run time.

I hope this post clears up any doubts you may have had regarding the basic tools of UML diagrams. Having finished off the Structural part of UML building blocks in this post, please do stay tuned to Part 2 of this post where I will be detailing parts (b) to (d) of Things.

View Comments