Tuesday, June 07, 2005

UML diagrams

I find that I usually only use 3 types of UML diagrams: the class diagram, the sequence diagram, and the activity diagram. Perhaps this is so because it is often almost as easy to describe other parts of the design in words as it is with diagrams, as, e.g., for components and deployment. Or perhaps it is just that sometimes the UML standard intimidates me: I feel that I am serving it rather then it is serving me :|

P.s.
A fine summary of UML 2.0 diagrams is maintained by Scott Ambler.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Guess what, Microsoft has declared UML obsolete! In Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 you will find extensive support for diagrams. The diagrams can also be used as a starting point for code and when you update the code, the diagrams will update automatically.

The diagrams support component based design better than UML in my opinion and when you work in .NET they have native support for .NET specific features. No need for defining stereotypes.

UML is also under attack from Alistair Cockburn which more or less dismisses use case diagrams in his book "Writing Effective Use Cases". This agrees with my own experience, I have had trouble understanding the value of UML use case diagrams, but I can clearly see the value of text based use case descriptions that Cockburn proposes.

regards -Finnur