Unified Modeling Language: Systems Analysis, Design and Development Issues - Softcover

Siau, Keng ; Halpin, Terry

9781930708051: Unified Modeling Language: Systems Analysis, Design and Development Issues

Softcover

ISBN 10: 193070805X ISBN 13: 9781930708051

Publisher: Igi Global, 2001

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The unified modeling language (UML) has been adopted by the Object Management Group for use in developing object-oriented software systems, and has gained wide acceptance in industry. However UML is a large and complex language, with many features in need of refinement or clarification, and there are different views about how to use UML to build these systems. This book sheds light on such issues, by illustrating how UML can be used successfully in practice as well as identifying various problematic aspects of UML and suggesting possible solutions. As an edited collection of insightful contributions from both industry and academia, this book should appear to researchers, practitioners and instructors of UML.

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About the Author

Dr. Keng Siau received his Ph.D. degree in Business Administration from the University of British Columbia where he majored in Management Information Systems and minored in Cognitive Psychology. Dr. Siau's current research interests are web-based systems development, Internet/electronic commerce security, systems analysis and design methods and methodologies, user-database interaction, and creativity/innovation. He was the Organizing Chair for the 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999 CAiSE/IFIP8.1 International Workshop on Evaluation of Modeling Methods in Systems Analysis and Design held in Crete, Greece and Barcelona, Spain respectively. He has served on numerous program committees (e.g., IFIP8.1, CAiSE'98, ECIS'98, IRMA'98, ER'98, CAiSE'99, ECIS'99, IRMA'99, etc.) and is the minitrack chair for Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences in 1998 and 1999. He has recently been voted in as a member of International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 8.1. Dr. Siau's publications have appeared in journals such as Management Information Systems Quarterly, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Data Base, Behavior and Information Technology, Informatie, Information Systems, Information and Software Technology, Transactions on Information Systems, Journal of Creative Behavior, and others. In addition, he has over 35 refereed conference proceedings papers in conferences such as ICIS, ECIS, CAiSE, HICSS, HCI, AIS, IRMA, etc. Dr. Siau has worked for Computer Systems Advisors, National Computer Board of Singapore, Hewlett Packard, and Citibank.

Excerpt. � Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

This book provides a set of readings on the Unified Modeling Language (UML), currently the most popular language for modeling object-oriented software. To set the scene for these readings, this preface provides a brief historical and structural overview of UML, and then identifies the specific focus of each of the contributing chapters. Initially based on a combination of the Booch, OMT (Object Modeling Technique) and OOSE (Object-Oriented Software Engineering) methods, UML was refined and extended by a consortium of several companies, and is subject to ongoing revisions by the Object Management Group (OMG). UML was first adopted in November 1997 by the OMG as a language for object-oriented analysis and design (UML version 1.1). Within the OMG, the UML specification is the responsibility of the Analysis and Design Task Force (ADTF). Minor changes to the UML specification that lead to point releases (e.g. 1.2, 1.3, 1.4) are managed by a subgroup of the ADTF known as a UML Revision Task Force (RTF).

In late 1999, UML version 1.3 was approved and work began on version 1.4, which is expected to be ratified around the end of 2000. Following UML's adoption by the OMG, the language has gained wide acceptance in industry for object-oriented modeling. Some preliminary work has begun on a major revision (2.0), for release some years later (possibly 2002). Though not yet an official standard, UML has been proposed for standardization by the International Standards Organization (ISO), and approval is anticipated sometime in 2001. From a semiotic viewpoint, UML can be examined in relation to its syntax (notation), semantics (meaning) and pragmatics (use). The UML notation includes hundreds of symbols, from which various diagrams may be constructed to model different perspectives of an application. Different kinds of diagram provide different views of the overall model.

Use case diagrams are used primarily for requirements analysis to provide a high level view of how actors interact with the system. Class diagrams are used to capture the static aspects (or data model). Behavior diagrams are used to model the dynamic aspects of the system, while implementation diagrams indicate how components are packaged and deployed. Although the syntax and semantics of these diagrams are described in the UML specification, very little is said about pragmatics, or how a modeler may use these notations to construct models. The only advice given as to the modeling process is that it should be "use-case driven, architecture centric, and iterative". Various companies have made their own proposals for a detailed modeling process, and the OMG itself has begun preliminary work on a "Unified Process" to provide advice on the use of UML in developing software.

In spite of its good points, UML is a large and complex language, with many features in need of refinement or clarification, and there are different views about how to use UML to develop software systems. This book sheds light on such issues, by illustrating how UML can be used successfully in practice as well as identifying some problematic aspects of UML and suggesting possible solutions. As an edited collection of insightful contributions from both industry and academia, the book should be of interest to researchers, practitioners and instructors of UML.

The book is divided into the following four sections: Applying UML; Evaluating UML; Extending UML; and Formalizing UML. Although each individual chapter appears in the section most closely related to its primary focus, a chapter may include some material relevant to another section. For example, most chapters include a brief critical evaluation of some aspects of UML.

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