UML
Terms
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- Abstract Class
- A class that cannot be directly instantiated.
- Abstraction
- 1. The act of identifying the essential characteristics of a thing that distinguishes it from all other kinds of things. 2. A kind of dependency that relates two elements that represent the same concept at different abstraction levels.
- Action
- The specification of an executable statement that forms an abstraction of a computational procedure; typically results in a change in the state of the system and can be realized by sending a message to an object or modifying a link or a value of an attri
- Action Sequence
- An expression that resolves to a sequence of actions.
- Action State
- A state that represents the execution of an atomic action, typically the invocation of an operation.
- Activation
- Execution of an action.
- Active Class
- class whose instances are active objects
- Active Object
- Object that owns a thread and can initiate control activity. An instance of active class.
- Activity Graph
- A special case of a state machine that is used to model processes involving one or more classifiers.
- Actor (Class)
- A coherent set of roles that users of use cases play when interacting with these use cases. An actor has one role for each use case with which it communicates.
- Actual Parameter
- argument
- Adornments
- Textual or graphical items that are added to an elements basic notation and are used to visualize details from the elements specification.
- Aggregate (Class)
- Class that represents the whole in an aggregation (whole-part) relationship.
- Aggregation
- Special form of association that specifies a whole-part relationship between the aggregate or whole and a component part.
- Annotation Mechanisms
- Annotations of existing items in a UML diagram. The two annotation mechanisms are specifications and adornments.
- Architecture
- Organizational structure and associated behavior of a system. An architecture can be recursively decomposed into parts that interact through interfaces, relationships that connect parts and constraints for assembling parts. Parts that interact through int
- Artifact
- A piece of information that is used or produced by a software development process, such as an external document or a work product. An artifact can be a model, description or software.
- Association
- Semantic relationship between two or more classifiers that involves connections among their instances.
- Attribute
- Named property of a class that describes a range of values that instances of the property may hold.
- Building Blocks
- Things, relationships, and diagrams that compose something.
- Class
- A description of a set of objects that share the same attributes, operations, methods, relationships and semantics. A class may use a set of interfaces to specify collections of operations it provides to its environment.
- Class Diagram
- A diagram that shows a collection of declarative or static model elements, such as classes, types, and their contents and relationships.
- Collaboration
- The specification of how an operation or classifier, such as a use case, is realized by a set of classifiers and associations playing specific roles used in a specific way. The collaboration defines an interaction.
- Collaboration Diagram
- A diagram that shows interactions organized around the structure of a model, using either classifiers and associations or instances and links. Unlike a sequence diagram, a collaboration diagram shows the relationships among the instances. Sequence diagr
- Component
- A modular, deployable and replaceable part of a system that encapsulates implementation and exposes a set of interfaces. A component is typically specified by one or more classifiers (e.g., implementation classes) that reside on it and may be implemented
- Component Diagram
- A diagram that shows the organizations and dependencies among components.
- Concrete Class
- A class that can be directly instantiated.
- Constraint
- A semantic condition or restriction. Certain constraints are predefined in the UML; others may be user-defined. Constraints are one of three extensibility mechanisms in the UML.
- Container
- 1. An instance that exists to contain other instances and that provides operations to access or iterate over its contents (e.g., arrays, lists, sets). 2. A component that exists to contain other components.
- Containment Hierarchy
- A namespace hierarchy consisting of model elements and the containment relationships that exist between them. A containment hierarchy forms a graph.
- Context
- A view of a set of related modeling elements for a particular purpose, such as specifying an operation.
- Dependency
- A relationship between two modeling elements, in which a change to one modeling element (the independent element) will affect the other modeling element (the dependent element).
- Deployment Diagram
- A diagram that shows the configuration of run-time processing nodes and the components, processes, and objects that live on them. Components represent run-time manifestations of code units.
- Derivation
- A relationship between an element and another element that can be computed from it. Derivation is modeled as a stereotype of an abstraction dependency with the keyword Derive.
- Derived Element
- An element that can be computed from other elements and is included for clarity or for design purposes, even though it adds no semantic information.
- Diagram
- A graphical presentation of a collection of model elements, most often rendered as a connected graph of arcs (relationships) and vertices (other model elements). The UML supports the following diagrams: class diagram, object diagram, use case diagram, se
- Effect
- Specifies an optional procedure to be performed when the transition fires.
- Element
- An atomic constituent of a model.
- Entry Action
- An action executed upon entering a state in a state machine, regardless of the transition taken to reach that state.
- Event
- The specification of a significant occurrence that has a location in time and space. In the context of statechart diagrams, an event is an occurrence that can trigger a transition.
- Exit Action
- An action executed upon exiting a state in a state machine, regardless of the transition taken to exit that state.
- Extend
- A relationship from an extension use case to a base use case, specifying how the behavior defined for the extension use case augments (subject to conditions specified in the extension) the behavior for the base use case. The behavior is inserted at the l
- Fire
- Transition
- Generalizable Element
- A model element that may participate in a generalization relationship.
- Generalization
- A taxonomic relationship between a more general element and a more specific element. The more specific element is fully consistent with the more general element and contains additional information. An instance of the more specific element may be used whe
- Guard
- A Boolean predicate that provides finegrained control over the firing of the transition. It must be true for the transition to fire. It is evaluated at the time the event isdispatched. There can be at most one guard per transition.
- Inheritance
- The mechanism by which more specific elements incorporate structure and behavior of more general elements related by behavior.
- Instance
- An individual entity with its own identity and value.
- Interaction
- A specification of how stimuli are sent between instances to perform a specific task. The interaction is defined in the context of a collaboration.
- Interaction Diagram
- A generic term that applies to several types of diagrams that emphasize object interactions. These include collaboration and sequence diagrams.
- Interface
- A named set of operations that characterize the behavior of an element.
- Link
- A semantic connection among objects. An instance of an association.
- Link End
- An instance of an association end.
- Message
- A specification of the conveyance of information from one instance to another, with the expectation that activity will ensue. A message may specify the raising of a signal or the call of an operation.
- Metadata
- The architecture data types, possibly expressed in the form of a physical schema.
- Model
- A semantically complete abstraction of a system.
- Node
- A node is a classifier that represents a runtime computational resource, which generally has at least a memory and often processing capability. Run-time objects and components may reside on nodes.
- Notes
- Notes may contain any combination of text or graphics. A note that renders a comment has no semantic impact; it does not alter the meaning of the model to which it is attached. Notes are used to specify requirements, observations, reviews and explanations
- Object
- An entity with a well-defined boundary and identity that encapsulates state and behavior. State is represented by attributes and relationships; behavior is represented by operations, methods and state machines. An object is an instance of a class.
- Object Diagram
- A diagram that encompasses objects and their relationships at a point in time. An object diagram may be considered a special case of a class diagram or a collaboration diagram.
- Operation
- An operation is the implementation of a service that can be requested from any object of the class to affect behavior.
- Package
- A package is a general-purpose mechanism for organizing elements into groups.
- Postcondition
- A constraint that must be true at the completion of an operation.
- Precondition
- A constraint that must be true when the operation is invoked.
- Realization
- The relationship between a specification and its implementation; an indication of the inheritance of behavior without the inheritance of structure.
- Refinement
- A relationship that represents a more complete specification of something that has already been specified at a certain level of detail. For example, a design class is a refinement of an analysis class.
- Relationship
- A semantic connection among model elements. Examples include: dependency, association, generalization, and realization.
- Sequence Diagram
- diagram that shows objects participating in the interaction and the sequence of messages exchanged in a time sequence; does not include object relationships; can exist in a generic form (describes all possible scenarios) and in an instance form (describ
- Signal
- The specification of an asynchronous stimulus communicated between instances. Signals may have parameters.
- Source
- A source designates the originating state vertex of the transition.
- Specification
- A declarative description of what something is or does.
- State
- A condition or situation during the life of an object during which it satisfies some condition, performs some activity or waits for some event.
- State Machine
- A behavior that specifies the sequences of states that an object or interaction goes through during its life in response to events, together with its responses and actions.
- Statechart Diagram
- A diagram that shows a state machine.
- Stereotype
- A new type of modeling element that extends the semantics of the metamodel. Stereotypes must be based on certain existing types or classes in the metamodel. Stereotypes may extend the semantics, but not the structure of pre-existing types and classes. Ce
- Stimulus
- The passing of information from one instance to another, such as raising a signal or invoking an operation. The receipt of a signal is normally considered an event.
- Swim Lane
- A partition on an activity diagram for organizing the responsibilities for actions. Swim lanes typically correspond to organizational units in a business model.
- Tagged Value
- An extensibility mechanism that adds a new property to things.
- Target
- Designates the target state vertex that is reached when the transition is taken.
- Things
- The abstractions that are first-class citizens in a model; relationships tie these things together; diagrams group collections of things. There are four kinds of things in the UML: structural things, behavioral things, grouping things and annotational t
- Thread (of Control)
- A single path of execution through a program, a dynamic model or some other representation of control flow. Also, a stereotype for the implementation of an active object as a lightweight process.
- Time Event
- An event that denotes the time elapsed since the current state was entered.
- Time Expression
- An expression that resolves to an absolute or relative value of time.
- Trace
- A dependency that indicates an historical or process relationship between two elements that represent the same concept without specific rules for deriving one from the other.
- Transient Object
- An object that exists only during the execution of the process or thread that created it.
- Transition
- A relationship between two states indicating that an object in the first state will perform certain specified actions and enter the second state when a specified event occurs and specified conditions are satisfied. On such a change of state, the transitio
- Trigger
- Specifies the event that fires the transition. There can be at most one trigger per transition.
- Type
- A stereotyped class that specifies a domain of objects together with the operations applicable to the objects, without defining the physical implementation of those objects. A type may not contain any methods, maintain its own thread of control or be ne
- Use Case (Class)
- The specification of a sequence of actions, including variants, that a system (or other entity) can perform, interacting with actors of the system.
- Use Case Diagram
- A diagram that shows the relationships among actors and use cases within a system.
- Use Case Instance
- The performance of a sequence of actions being specified in a use case. An instance of a use case.
- Use Case Model
- A model that describes a systems functional requirements in terms of use cases.