Overview of the 14 UML Diagram Types

Overview of the 14 UML Diagram Types

3-4 minutes

The Unified Modeling Language is a standardized general-purpose modeling language and nowadays is managed as a de facto industry standard by the Object Management Group (OMG) . UML includes a set of graphic notation techniques to create visual models for software-intensive systems.

In UML 2.2 there are 14 types of UML diagrams, which are divided into two categories:

• 7 diagram types represent structural information
• Another 7 represent general UML diagram types for behavioral modeling, including four that represent different aspects of interactions.

These diagrams can be categorized hierarchically as shown in the following UML diagram map:

(You may click on individual UML diagram above to open the corresponding UML diagram guide)

Question: UML is Huge and Complex?

UML is a truly a huge topic. UML provides a large volume of diagramming notation grouped into 14 different UML diagram types, each with different UML models, serving different purposes and addressing different aspects of development needs.

• Each UML diagram of the 14 UML diagram types provides a large set of constructs and notation that cover different needs for most of the software development projects.
• UML specification has more than 700 pages, and clearly considered as too complex and has a negative impact on the perception and adoption of UML.
• Typically, users tend to consider and use only a portion of its diagrams/constructs of UML.

Answer: Learn the Most Essential UML Diagrams and Notation Grady Booch, one of the most important developer of Unified Modeling Language, stated that “For 80% of all software only 20% of UML is needed”.

What is the UML Survey* States?

We could interpret the results of the UML survey by assuming that, if a diagram is

• widely used, if it ≥ 60% of the sources
• scarcely used if it is ≤ 40% of the sources

Make Your UML Learning Plan

Based on the figures collected in the survey, you can have a better idea on how to start your UML learning journey by developing a meaningful UML learning plan. This article also provides you with an image map for quickly visiting to a series of “What is UML Diagram” papers (Just click the boxes of UML diagram in the image map above). Enjoy!

Get Visual Paradigm Community Edition, a free UML tool that can help you learn UML faster & more effectively. Visual Paradigm Community Edition supports all UML diagram types. Its UML modeler is award-winning, easy-to-use and intuitive.

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* Reference – What are the used UML diagrams? A Preliminary Survey , Gianna Reggio, Maurizio Leotta, Filippo Ricca, Diego Clerissi DIBRIS – Universit’a di Genova, Italy