Editing Unified Modeling Language (section)

== Design ==
[[File:Component-based-Software-Engineering-example2.png|class=skin-invert-image|thumb|500px|An example of components in a travel reservation system]]

UML offers a way to visualize a system's architectural blueprints in a diagram, including elements such as:<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.omg.org/spec/UML/2.4.1/Superstructure/PDF |title=OMG Unified Modeling Language (OMG UML), Superstructure. Version 2.4.1 |publisher=Object Management Group |access-date=9 April 2014}}</ref>

* any [[Activity (UML)|activities]] (jobs);
* individual [[Component (UML)|components]] of the system;
** and how they can interact with other [[software component]]s;
* how the system will run;
* how entities interact with others (components and interfaces);
* external [[user interface]].

Although originally intended for object-oriented design documentation, UML has been extended to a larger set of design documentation (as listed above),<ref>Satish Mishra (1997). [http://www2.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~hs/Lehre/2004-WS_SWQS/20050107_Ex_UML.ppt "Visual Modeling & Unified Modeling Language (UML): Introduction to UML"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720091651/http://www2.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~hs/Lehre/2004-WS_SWQS/20050107_Ex_UML.ppt |date=20 July 2011 }}. Rational Software Corporation. Accessed 9 November 2008.</ref> and has been found useful in many contexts.<ref name="UML, Success Stories">{{cite web|url=http://www.uml.org/uml_success_stories/index.htm|title=UML, Success Stories|access-date=9 April 2014}}</ref>

=== Software development methods ===
UML is not a development method by itself;<ref>John Hunt (2000). ''The Unified Process for Practitioners: Object-oriented Design, UML and Java''. Springer, 2000. {{ISBN|1-85233-275-1}}. p.&nbsp;5.door</ref> however, it was designed to be compatible with the leading object-oriented software development methods of its time, for example, [[Object-modeling technique|OMT]], [[Booch method]], [[Objectory]], and especially [[Rational Unified Process|RUP]] it was originally intended to be used with when work began at Rational Software.

=== Modeling ===
It is important to distinguish between the UML model and the set of diagrams of a system. A diagram is a partial graphic representation of a system's model. The set of diagrams need not completely cover the model and deleting a diagram does not change the model. The model may also contain documentation that drives the model elements and diagrams (such as written use cases).

UML diagrams represent two different views of a system model:<ref>Jon Holt Institution of Electrical Engineers (2004). ''UML for Systems Engineering: Watching the Wheels'' IET, 2004, {{ISBN|0-86341-354-4}}. p.&nbsp;58</ref>

* Static (or ''structural'') view: emphasizes the static structure of the system using objects, attributes, operations and relationships. It includes [[class diagram]]s and [[composite structure diagram]]s.
* Dynamic (or ''behavioral'') view: emphasizes the dynamic behavior of the system by showing collaborations among objects and changes to the internal states of objects. This view includes [[sequence diagram]]s, [[activity diagram]]s and [[UML state machine|state machine diagrams]].

UML models can be exchanged among [[UML tool]]s by using the [[XML Metadata Interchange]] (XMI) format.

In UML, one of the key tools for behavior modeling is the use-case model, caused by [[OOSE]]. Use cases are a way of specifying required usages of a system. Typically, they are used to capture the requirements of a system, that is, what a system is supposed to do.<ref>Manuel Almendros-Jiménez, Jesús & Iribarne, Luis. (2007). Describing Use-Case Relationships with Sequence Diagrams. Comput. J.. 50. 116-128. 10.1093/comjnl/bxl053.</ref>