Understanding

Unified Modelling Language

(UML)
 UML is a modeling language

• A modeling language allows the specification,

the visualization, and the documentation of the
development of a software system
• The models are artifacts which clients and
developers use to communicate
• UML 1.* is a modeling language
• UML 2.* is also a programming language
Meaning of models for software
• A model is a description of the structure
and meaning of a system
• A model is always an abstraction at some
level: it captures the essential aspects of a
system and ignores some details

• Important: a model can be also generator

of potential configurations of systems
 Roots of UML

At the beginning of the ’90 there was a convergence:

§ Booch method (Grady Booch) ’94 – join Rational Software

Corporation
§ OMT (Jim Rumbaugh)

§ Fusion/OOSE (Ivar Jacobson) ’95 – joins Rational

 Evolution of UML
• OO languages appear, since mid 70’s to late 80’s
• Between ’89 and ’94, OO methods increased from 10 to 50
• Unification of ideas began in mid 90’s pre-UML
• 1994 Rumbaugh joins Booch at Rational
– 1995 v0.8 draft Unified Method
• 1995 Jacobson joins Rational (Three Amigos)
– 1996 June: UML v0.9 published

– 1997 Jan: UML 1.0 offered to OMG

– 1997 Jul: UML 1.1 OMG standard
– 1998: UML 1.2
– 1999: UML 1.3 UML 1.x
– 2001: UML 1.4
• 2003 Feb: IBM buys Rational
– 2003: UML 1.5
– 2004: UML 1.4.2 becomes the standard ISO/IEC 19501

– 2005: UML 2.0

– 2007: UML 2.1.2
– 2009: UML 2.2
– 2010: UML 2.3 UML 2.0
– 2011: UML 2.4
– 2013: UML 2.5
 OMG
● Object Management Group, founded in 1989
● Consortium of 800 industries (eg. IBM, HP, Apple, etc.)
and many universities.
● Produces specifications of reference architectures, eg.
CORBA
● Other specifications: UML, various MDA technologies
● UML as managed by OMG is a standard de facto in
continuous evolution.
● UML1.4 (onwards) is a ISO standard.
 Main UML specification documents
● Superstructure: defines the UML elements (diagrams, etc.)
● Infrastructure: defines the UML core metamodel
● OCL (Object Constraint Language):
formal language for writing predicates, constraints, and
formulas inside diagrams
● XMI (XML Metadata Interchange):
Document Type Defintion (DTD) for UML models
● UML Diagram Interchange: XMI + graphic info
 Canonical diagrams (Superstructure, vers. 2.4)

Version 2.4 includes 14 canonical diagrams

• Structure
1. Class
2. Composite structure
3. Component
4. Deployment
5. Object
6. Package
7. Profiles (added in version 2.4)
• Behavior
1. Activity
2. Statecharts
3. Usecase
• Interaction
1. Communication
2. Interaction Overview
3. Sequence
4. Timing
 UML
2.5
(2013)
 Structure and Behavior

● UML focesses on two aspects of object oriented

models:
– Structure and Behavior
● It aims at visualizing both.
Describing the structure of software
● The description of structure offers an account of
what a system is made of, in terms of both its
parts and the relationships among them.
● A structure may be a hierarchy featuring one-to-
many relationships, or
● A network featuring many-to-many links.
● In short, artifacts and the way they are
connected to each other to define a system
 Discuss
• Which ways do you know to pictorially
describe “behaviors” - or actions?
Flowchart
 Three modeling axes
Functional
Use case diagram
(System sequence diagram)
(Activity diagram)

Static Dynamic
Class diagram State diagram
(Object diagram) Collaboration diagram
Component diagram (Sequence diagram)
(Deployment diagram) (Activity diagram)
 Usage survey

See also: www.projectpragmatics.com/Home/resources-for-you-1/the-uml-survey-results-are-in

 Main diagrams
The main diagrams that are used in most
views are :
• Use case diagram
• Class diagram
• Sequence diagram
• Activity diagram
 Discuss
• Which diagrams are most useful in each
lifecycle phase?
 Diagrams in lifecycle

... Requirements ... Design ... Implementation

Use Case

Class diagram

Sequence diagram

Activity diagrams and Statecharts

 Diagrams during design
Three main types:
• Class diagrams for domain entities and
data structures
• Sequence diagrams for multiple objects
interactions via messages
• Statecharts for behaviors and algorithms
of a single object
 Example
• A university is an organization where some
persons work, some other study
• There are several types of roles and
grouping entities
• We say nothing about behaviors, for the
moment
 A taxonomy
Citizen Female

Foreigner Person Male

Professor Full professor

Student Employee
Administrative Associate
professor
Technician
Research
Undergraduate Masters PhD fellow
student student student
 Class diagram
• Most common diagram in OO modeling
• A class diagram is a graph including:
– Nodes representing classes (types of objects)
• Nodes can have just a name, or expose some internal structure
– Links representing relationships among classes
• Inheritance
• Association
• Aggregation or composition
• Dependency
– Links can have multiplicities and/or names for roles
played by participants
 Notation for classes
• The notation for classes is a rectangular box with
three compartments

ClassName The top compartment shows the class name

field1
……
The middle compartment contains the
declarations of the fields, or attributes, of the
fieldn
class
method1
… The bottom compartment contains the
declarations of the methods of the class
methodn
 Example
A point defined by classes at three different abstraction levels

Point

x
Point
y
Move

Point
- x: int
- y: int
+ move(dx: int, dy: int): void
 Example
A document defined by classes at three different abstraction levels

Document

Document Pages[]
nPages
display

Document
- Pages: array of Page
- nPages: int
+ display(k:int, p:Page): void
 UML Class Diagrams
Represent the (static) structure of the system
General In Java
Name Name
State Variables
Behavior Methods
 Exercise
Draw a class diagram for the following Java code

class Person {!
private String name;!
private Date birthday;!
public String getName() {!
// …!
}!
public Date getBirthday() {!
// …!
} !
}!
 A counter class
Counter class Counter{!
private counter: integer;!
- counter: integer public integer display()!
{return counter};!
public void tic()!
+ display: integer {counter = counter + 1};!
+ tic: void public void reset()!
+ reset: void
{counter = 0};!
A class in UML }!
A corresponding class
in a programming language

c3:Counter p:Printer

Using an object of type class

in an object oriented system
 Relationships Between Classes
Association OR
Permanent, structural, “has a”
Solid line (arrowhead optional)
Dependency
Temporary, “uses a”
Dotted line with arrowhead
Generalization
Inheritance, “is a”
Solid line with open (triangular) arrowhead
Composition and Aggregation
 Association
Denotes permanent, structural relationship
State of class A contains class B
Represented by solid line (arrowhead optional)

Car and Engine classes know about each other

 Association and roles
• The simplest relationship among classes is the
association
• An association represents a structural relationship that
connects two classes
• It means that the two classes “know” each other: all
objects in a class have some relationship with some
object(s) in the other class
• An association can have a name, which usually
describes its role
 Roles and multiplicity
• An association line may have a role name and a
multiplicity specification
• The multiplicity specifies an integer interval, e.g.,
– l..u closed (inclusive) range of integers
– i singleton range
– 0..* nonnegative integer, i.e., 0, 1, 2, …

0..* 1
Student Faculty
advisee advisor
 Multiplicity of Associations
Some relationships may be quantified
Multiplicity denotes how many objects the
source object can legitimately reference
Notation
*  0, 1, or more
5  5 exactly
5..8  between 5 and 8, inclusive
5..*  5 or more
 Multiplicity of Associations
Many-to-one
Bank has many ATMs, ATM knows only 1 bank

One-to-many
Inventory has many items, items know 1 inventory
Associations w/ Navigation Information
Can indicate direction of relationship
Represented by solid line with arrowhead

Gas Pedal class knows about Engine class

Engine class doesn’t know about Gas Pedal class
Associations w/ Navigation Information
Denotes “has-a” relationship between classes
“Gas Pedal” has a “Engine”

State of Gas Pedal class contains instance

of Engine class  can invoke its methods
 Association with direction
• An association may have an optional label
consisting of a name and a direction arrow
• The direction arrow indicates the direction of
association with respect to the name

enroll
Student Course

An arrow may be attached to the end of path

to indicate that navigation is supported in that direction:

Student knows Course, Course does not know Student

 Association example
• A Student can take up to five Courses
• Every Student has to be enrolled in at least one course
• Up to 300 students can enroll in a course
• A class should have at least 10 students

takes
Student Course
10..300 1..5
Association Example
- Multiplicity
• A teacher teaches 1 to 3 courses
• Each course is taught by only one teacher
• A student can take between 1 to 5 courses
• A course can have 10 to 300 students

1 teaches 1..3
Teacher Course
1..5

takes
Students
10..300
 Exercise
Explain the meaning of this diagram

6..* enroll 0..*

Student Course
advisee 0..* 1..*
teach

1
1
Teacher
advisor