Modeling languages have been used by system developers for decades to specify, visualize, construct, and document systems; rough sketches using stick figures and arrows and scribbled routing conditions go back still further. But the Unified Modeling Language (UML), for the first time in the history of systems engineering, gives practitioners a common language that applies to a multitude of different systems, domains, and methods or processes. It does not guarantee project success, but enables you to communicate solutions in a consistent, standardized, and tool-supported language.

All indications suggest that the industry is rushing to the UML. Created by leading software engineering experts Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh, and Ivar Jacobson (now of Rational Software Corporation), and accepted as a standard by the Object Management Group (OMG) in 1997, the language has already achieved more success than any previous contenders. With a firm conceptual and pragmatic basis, it is well suited to supporting projects in modern languages like C++ and Java. And standardization lays the groundwork for tools as well as standard methods or processes.

This book presents the UML, including its extension mechanisms and the Object Constraint Language (OCL), in a clear reference format. For those new to the language, a tutorial quickly brings you to the point where you can use the UML. The book is concise and precise, breaking down the information along clean lines and explaining each element of the language. Introductory chapters also convey the purpose of the UML and show its value to projects and as a means for communication.

Topics include:

• The role of the UML in projects
• The object-oriented paradigm and its relation to the UML
• Tutorial with realistic examples
• An integrated approach to UML diagrams
• Class and Object, Use Case, Sequence, Collaboration, Statechart, Activity, Component, and Deployment Diagrams
• Extension Mechanisms
• The Object Constraint Language (OCL)