Developing Enterprise Java Applications with J2EE™ and UML

Collaboration Diagrams

Collaboration diagrams are the other type of object interaction diagram in UML. Unlike sequence diagrams, which are focused on the time ordering of the interaction, collaboration diagram emphasis is on showing the relationships and communication links among the participants. Collaboration diagrams provide a better picture of the overall interactions for a given class.

Sequence diagrams allow you to convey some information, for example, timing information, which cannot be conveyed via collaboration diagrams. Collaboration diagrams also tend to become difficult to comprehend once you exceed a few objects on the diagram, whereas sequence diagrams have proven to be capable of handling scenarios involving a large number of objects. ...