Swimlanes
As discussed in Chapter 2, a swimlane is a visual region in an activity diagram that indicates the element that has responsibility for action states within the region. For example, the project management system may have the following swimlanes, which are illustrated in Figure 8-6:
-
Project Manager
Shows the action states that are the responsibility of a project manager. The swimlane makes it obvious that the project manager is responsible for entering data, thus the rather cumbersome action state name of
Project
Manager
Enters
Data
may be shortened toEnter
Data
.-
Project Management System
Shows the action states that are the responsibility of the project management system. Again, because the swimlane makes it obvious who (or what, in this case) is generating information, the rather cumbersome action state name of
Project
Management
System
Generates
Information
may be shortened toGenerate Information
.-
Printer
Shows the action states that are the responsibility of a printer. Because of this swimlane, the rather cumbersome action state name of
Printer
Prints
Information
may be shortened toPrint
Information
.
Notice how the use of swimlanes allows me to rename the action states to omit the responsible element for each action state.
In the UML, a swimlane is shown as a visual region separated from neighboring swimlanes by vertical solid lines on both sides and labeled at the top with the element responsible for action states within the swimlane. Figure 8-6 shows the swimlanes ...
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