CHAPTER 3

UML Diagrams and Extension Mechanisms

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In This Chapter

  • Exploring the set of UML diagrams
  • Examining the purpose of each UML diagram
  • Exploring the unique benefits of each UML diagram
  • Understanding the relationships between the UML diagrams
  • Examining UML Extension Mechanisms
  • Understanding Comments
  • Introducing UML Profiles

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UML was designed to be the distillation of best practices in software development. To accomplish this ambitious goal, UML provides an extensive set of diagramming tools. Because UML is such a big subject and the diagramming tools are so diverse I thought it would be helpful to give you an overview of the diagrams themselves. This chapter presents some samples of each diagram with a brief introduction describing the purpose and benefits of each diagram.

As a kind of roadmap I'll use the UML groupings that divide the diagrams into packages based on their roles in the Model Management, Structural, and Behavioral aspects of system design.

Model Management diagrams include Packages, which are used to represent Subsystems, Models, and more.

Structural diagrams include the Class diagram, Object diagram, Composite Structure diagram, Component diagram, Deployment diagram, and the Combined Component and Deployment diagram.

Behavioral diagrams include the Use Case ...

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