Unified Modelling Language (UML)

UML

^ü    Unified Modelling Language (UML) is the set of notations,models and diagrams used when developing object-oriented (OO) systems. UML is the industry standard OO visual modelling language.

^ü    The latest version is UML 1.4 and was formed from the coming together of three leading software methodologists; Booch, Jacobson and Rumbaugh. UML allows the analyst ways of describing structure, behaviour of significant parts of system and their relationships.

Unified Modeling Language (UML)

^ü    It is a standardized general-purpose modeling language in the field of software engineering. The standard is managed, and was created by, the Object Management Group. UML includes a set of graphic notation techniques to create visual models of software-intensive systems.

^ü    The Unified Modeling Language is commonly used to visualize and construct systems which are software intensive. A special language called Systems Modeling Language was designed to handle systems which were defined within UML 2.0.

The Unified Modeling Language is important for a number of reasons. First, it has been used as a catalyst for the advancement of technologies which are model driven, and some of these include Model Driven Development and Model Driven Architecture. Because an emphasis has been placed on the importance of graphics notation, UML is proficient in meeting this demand, and it can be used to represent behaviors, classes, and aggregation. While software developers were forced to deal with more rudimentary issues in the past, languages like UML have now allowed them to focus on the structure and design of their software programs. It should also be noted that UML models can be transformed into various other representations, often without a great deal of effort. One example of this is the ability to transform UML models into Java representations.

^ü    This transformation can be accomplished through a transformation language that is similar to QVT. Many of these languages may be supported by OMG. The Unified Modeling Language has a number of features and characteristics which separate it from other languages within the same category. Many of these attributes have allowed it to be useful for developers. In this article, I intend to show you many of these attributes, and you will then understand why the Unified Modeling Language is one of the most powerful languages in existence today.

Unified Process

^ü    The Unified Software Development Process or Unified Process is a popular iterative and incremental software development process framework. The best-known and extensively documented refinement of the Unified Process is the Rational Unified Process (RUP).

^ü    Profile of a typical project showing the relative sizes of the four phases of the Unified Process.

Overview

^ü    The Unified Process is not simply a process, but rather an extensible framework which should be customized for specific organizations or projects. The Rational Unified Process is, similarly, a customizable framework. As a result it is often impossible to say whether a refinement of the process was derived from UP or from RUP, and so the names tend to be used interchangeably.

^ü    The name Unified Process as opposed to Rational Unified Process is generally used to describe the generic process, including those elements which are common to most refinements. The Unified Process name is also used to avoid potential issues of trademark infringement since Rational Unified Process and RUP are trademarks of IBM. The first book to describe the process was titled The Unified Software Development Process and published in 1999 by Ivar Jacobson, Grady Booch and James Rumbaugh. Since then various authors unaffiliated with Rational Software have published books and articles using the name Unified Process, whereas authors affiliated with Rational Software have favored the name Rational Unified Process.

Unified Process Characteristics

Iterative and Incremental

^ü The Unified Process is an iterative and incremental development process. The Elaboration, Construction and Transition phases are divided into a series of timeboxed iterations. (The Inception phase may also be divided into iterations for a large project.) Each iteration results in an increment, which is a release of the system that contains added or improved functionality compared with the previous release.

^ü   Although most iterations will include work in most of the process disciplines (e.g. Requirements, Design, Implementation, Testing) the relative effort and emphasis will change over the course of the project.