The Unified Modeling Language (UML)
Words of Wisdom ...
- "Different stakeholders are likely to prefer one view over the other. Some will prefer a big picture overview. Your fellow designers may want to examine your design in all its glory - and may not be satisfied with any level of detail you can show using UML. No single picture or diagram can communicate these different perspectives."
Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, Alan McKean, 2002, Object Design: Roles, Responsibilities, and Collaborations - "The trouble comes when people feel compelled to convey the whole model or design through UML. A lot of object model diagrams are too complete and, simultaneously, leave too much out. ... Nor is UML a very satisfying programming language."
Eric Evans, 2003, Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software - "... the heart and soul of effective object models is its strategies and patterns (not the shape of an icon or the number of adornments)"
Peter Coad, David North, Mark Mayfield, 1996, Object Models: Strategies, Patterns, and Applications - "The vocabulary and rules of a language such as UML tell you how to create and read well-formed models, but they don't tell you what models you should build and when you should create them. That's the role of the software development process."
Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh, Ivar Jacobson, 2005, The Unified Modeling Language User Guide - "Use case modeling, when used in isolation and performed incorrectly, may lead to certain types of problems.... the possibility of ending up with a functional model instead of an object model. … Use cases authored by different developers may describe the same thing differently. … When domain analysis is performed in conjunction with use case modeling, it reduces the risk of a functional design. … Domain analysis pinpoints the language to be used to create textual descriptions in the use cases."
Frank Armour, Granville Miller, 2001, Advanced Use Case Modeling: Software Systems - "The fundamental reason to use UML involves communication. … Natural language is too imprecise and gets tangled when it comes to complex concepts. Code is precise but too detailed. So I use UML when I want a certain amount of precision but I don't want to get lost in the details."
Martin Fowler, Kendall Scott, 2000, UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language - "Sometimes I use code for the sketch and sometimes Unified Modeling Language (UML), depending on which seems to best convey the essence of the refactoring."
Martin Fowler, 1999, Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code