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Modelling the future
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28/11/2006
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The Unified Modelling language (UML) has proved immensely popular, to the point where it is the only widely used visual modelling language for software engineering. However, UML’s software focus has discouraged many system engineers from adopting it in earnest.
There have been various attempts to address UML’s shortcomings for systems engineers. Some made use of the stereotypes provided in UML to create ‘libraries’ or profiles of entities in their application domain. By applying these, they could express non software concepts. Others used tools such as Microsoft Visio to model their systems engineering concepts, in conjunction with their UML model. But this approach left them with two models which could not be integrated or cross referenced.
Some simply ignored the problem or used words to fill the gap. Some tool manufacturers – including Artisan – extended UML, allowing integration of hardware, software, and systems engineering concepts in one model. This left them open to a charge of being ‘non standard’. However, as most systems engineers are pragmatists, this argument was not usually effective.
Those who know UML find it to be an effective modelling language. UML’s roots are firmly in software and the Object Management Group (OMG) stated in 1997 ‘UML is a general purpose visual modelling language that is designed to specify, visualise, construct and document the artefacts of a ‘software system’ [our italics]. In UML 2.0, software system was replaced by system, reflecting UML’s increased use by systems engineers.
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Author
Matthew Hause
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