Get Ahead of the Game with UML Modelling Tools and Versions: The Secret Sauce to Software Success!

HISTORY OF UML.

In the year of the era(1990s) of development of object-oriented languages, Object-Oriented Languages were used to create complex system.

Due to the complexity of understanding system developed, it led to the design and analysis problems. Soon as UML was introduced, task of analyzing the system of many game changing was simplified.

UML which is an object-oriented modeling language was invented by some software engineers during the year 1994 and 1995, these software engineers are Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and Jame Rumbaugh of Rational software, UML was under developed until 1996. Each software engineer had a wonderful an idea in designing a language which will reduce the complexity.

UML was later recognized as a standard by Object-Oriented Management Group (OMG) in 1997, in 2005 the international Organization for standardization approved Uml as an ISO standard which was used in various industries for creating Object-Oriented models. Version 2.5.2 was the latest which was released in December 2017.

UML VERSIONS

UML had different versions, as the world developed so has different ideas and method was introduced to make complexity of task easy.

The first version, 1.1 was invented in 1997, it was adopted by object management group.

Version 1.3 was invented in the year 03–2000, Containing a number of changes to the UML metamodel, semantics, and notation, but should be considered a minor upgrade to the original proposal.

Version 1.4, invented in the year 09–2001, Mostly “tuning” release but not completely upward compatible with the UML 1.3. Addition of profiles as UML extensions grouped together. Updated visibility of features. Stick arrowhead in interaction diagrams now denotes asynchronous call. Model element may now have multiple stereotypes. Clarified collaborations. Refined definitions of components and related concepts. Artifact was added to represent physical representations of components.

Version 1.5, invented in the year 03–2003, Added actions, executable actions and procedures, including their run-time semantics, defined the concept of a data flow to carry data between actions, etc.

UML kept upgrading down to version 2.4.1 and to the latest version 2.5

Version 2.4.1, invented in the year 08–2011, UML revision with few fixes and updates to classes, packages — added URI package attribute; updated actions; removed creation event, execution event, send and receive operation events, send and receive signal events, renamed destruction event to destruction occurrence specification; profiles — changed stereotypes and applied stereotypes to have upper-case first letter — «Metaclass» and stereotype application.

Version 2.5 in the year 06–2015, UML 2.5 is called a “minor revision” to the UML 2.4.1, while they spent a lot of efforts to simplify and reorganize UML specification document. UML 2.5 has a number of fixes, clarifications, and explanations added. They updated description for multiplicity and multiplicity element, clarified definitions of aggregation and composition, and finally fixed wrong «instantiate» dependency.

UML MODELLING TOOLS

So what are the different UML diagram types? There are two main categories; structure diagrams and behavioral diagrams.

Structure diagrams show the things in the modeled system. In a more technical term, they show different objects in a system.

Behavioral diagrams show what should happen in a system. They describe how the objects interact with each other to create a functioning system.

Click on the links to know more about the specific diagram type.

Structure Diagrams

• Class Diagram
• Component Diagram
• Deployment Diagram
• Object Diagram
• Package Diagram
• Profile Diagram
• Composite Structure Diagram

Behavioral Diagrams

• Use Case Diagram
• Activity Diagram
• State Machine Diagram
• Sequence Diagram
• Communication Diagram
• Interaction Overview Diagram
• Timing Diagram

CLASS DIAGRAM AND USE CASE DIAGRAM

Class Diagram

Class diagrams are the main building block of any object-oriented solution. It shows the classes in a system, attributes, and operations of each class and the relationship between each class.

In most modeling tools, a class has three parts. Name at the top, attributes in the middle and operations or methods at the bottom. In a large system with many related classes, classes are grouped together to create class diagrams. Different relationships between classes are shown by different types of arrows.

Use Case Diagram

As the most known diagram type of the behavioral UML types, Use case diagrams give a graphic overview of the actors involved in a system, different functions needed by those actors and how these different functions interact.

It’s a great starting point for any project discussion because you can easily identify the main actors involved and the main processes of the system. You can create use case diagrams using any tool and/or get started instantly using the use case templates.

UML MODELLING SOFTWARE

As you see, UML provides developers with many types of diagrams to map out their projects. UML works perfectly to chart out large enterprise applications. UML allows teams to visualize projects that scale easily. Good architecture will never go out of style, this is why UML is still relevant nearly 25 years after its inception.

There are different UML modelling software, which are:

• Lucidchart
• Gleek.io
• Diagram.net
• Cacoo
• Draw.io

We will be concentrating on Lucidchart and Draw.io with their known differences.

Lucidchart

Lucidchart provides a suite of simple tools. it works in real time across many platforms, Lucidchart integrates with Confluence, and also with MS Team, Slack and G Suite. Lucidchart handles anything from complex system diagrams to mind maps. Lucidchart has fans among less-technical development team members because of its easy drag-and-drop user interface.

Draw.io

is a free open-source collaborative workspace for drawing UML diagrams. It also contains predefined templates for drawing any UML diagram, creating wireframes, business charts, etc. It is available as both software and online tool. It is used by many enterprises.

Check out our Draw.io vs. Lucidchart article to get a more in-depth look at the app’s functionality.

Mentioned above are all the UML diagram types. UML offers many diagram types, and sometimes two diagrams can explain the same thing using different notations.