Summary

It is difficult to summarize a chapter whose goal is to introduce the complete UML syntax — in a sense the material forms its own summary. However, the nine major diagram categories are worth reiterating and remembering. They are:

• Activity diagrams, which represent the behavior of operations using sets of actions
  
  
• Class diagrams, which express the static structure of a system in terms of classes and their relationships
  
  
• Collaboration diagrams, which illustrate the interactions between objects using a spatial structure that represents their physical layout
  
  
• Component diagrams, which describe the software components of an application in the implementation environment
  
  
• Deployment diagrams, which show the locations of components on particular pieces of hardware
  
  
• Object diagrams, which express the static structure of a system in terms of objects and their relationships
  
  
• Sequence diagrams, which illustrate the interactions between objects using a temporal structure that represents the order of communication
  
  
• Statechart diagrams, which represent the behavior of classes using state machines
  
  
• Use case diagrams, which are representations of the functionality of a system, from the point of view of its users

In the next chapter, the notation described here will be used to assist in the discussion of using object-oriented techniques to perform the analysis, design and implementation of a software project using UML, use cases, and an iterative development cycle.