The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a family of graphical notations, backed by single meta-model, that help in describing and designing software systems, particularly software systems built using the object-oriented (OO) style. That’s a somewhat simplified definition. In fact, the UML is a few different things to different people. This comes both from its own history and from the different views that people have about what makes an effective software engineering process. As a result, my task in much of this chapter is to set the scene for this book by explaining the different ways in which people see and use the UML.

Graphical modeling languages have been around in the software industry for a long ...