What is UML? explain in detail. : Business Analysts and System Analysts FAQ

Most of the businesses around the world use IT in their daily working and communication. The systems on which these businesses run are based on languages, which make the design of these systems easier than it would have been otherwise. System design and engineering complexities are greatly reduced by use of diagrams that convey much more than reams of paper would consume by way of text. Also, these diagrams used in modeling help to design the system faster and quicker.

Unified Modeling Language (UML) is one such Modeling language, used to make designing of systems faster and quicker. The UML is thus a visual tool that helps software Engineers and Business Analysts to understand the system design specifications better, clarify their doubts, and create time-bound solutions as required by the clients, through better facilities of communication.

UML is basically a graphical modeling language. It can be a standardized tool for system design.

The great part of Unified Modeling Language is that it can be used across all stages of the SDLC ( System Development Life Cycle) and later while being implemented in the real world and for the maintenance purposes too. UML found such appreciation in its usability that it became a standard (made by OMG – Object Management Group) in the year 1997 and over the years, another version too with minor modifications has been developed. The new version is called UML 2.

USES OF UNIFIED MODELING LANGUAGE:

Ø UML is used for system design. Since UML uses visual depictions of software in the system design, it makes communication simpler and tasks easier to execute. Unified Modeling Language uses diagrams to create these visual descriptions called Use Case Diagrams. The Use Cases are nothing but descriptions of a system’s behavior to an external response. Use case diagrams are the diagrams used to depict this information in a graphical visual manner that is easy to understand, thus facilitating communication making the design of the system faster to develop.

Ø UML is versatile in the sense that it can be used for all processes involved in the designing of a system as required by the client.

Ø UML reduces complexities that are involved in system design to a great extent as the Unified Modeling Language uses easy to understand graphical documents, thus avoiding lengthy and complex textual matter. This makes communication simple and makes it easier as well as faster to develop the system that is required to be designed.

Ø There are different types of diagrams that are used to facilitate system design, during the various iterations in the various processes in the system design. Use Case Diagrams, Sequence Diagrams, Interaction Diagrams; Class Diagrams are the major ones, which help to convey the system’s behavior. Some diagrams are used for static purposes and some for dynamic purposes.

Ø The Unified Modeling Language is thus a great tool for project modeling in Object Oriented Programming and has been used extensively through the years by programmers in system design.

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