UML Diagrams

What is a UML Diagram?

A UML diagram is a representation of the components or elements of a system or process model and, depending on the type of diagram, how those elements are connected or how they interact from a particular perspective. For example, how and why an object changes state, or how requirements are realized by the process or a system.

Types of Diagram

There are two major groupings of UML diagrams:

• Structural Diagrams which depict the structural elements composing a system or function, reflecting the static relationships of a structure, or run-time architectures.
• Behavioral Diagrams which show a dynamic view of the model, depicting the behavioral features of a system or business process.

Enterprise Architect provides the following additional diagram types that extend the core UML diagrams for business process modeling, formal requirements specifications and other domain-specific models:

• Analysis diagrams
• Custom diagrams
• Requirements diagrams
• Maintenance diagrams
• User Interface diagrams
• Database diagrams
• Business Modeling and Business Interaction diagrams.

Enterprise Architect also supports diagram types specific to MDG Technologies, including integrated technologies such as Archimate, BPMN, Data Flow Diagrams, Eriksson-Penker Extensions, ICONIX and Mind Mapping.

Work with Diagrams

Diagrams are developed in the main workspace in which you create and connect model elements. You create them by right-clicking a package and selecting the New Diagram context menu option, or load them by double-clicking their diagram icon in the Project Browser.

For full details on how to work with diagrams, see Diagram Tasks.