UML 2 Tutorial - Communication Diagram

Communication Diagrams

A communication diagram, formerly called a collaboration diagram, is an interaction diagram that shows similar information to sequence diagrams but its primary focus is on object relationships.

On communication diagrams, objects are shown with association connectors between them. Messages are added to the associations and show as short arrows pointing in the direction of the message flow. The sequence of messages is shown through a numbering scheme.

The following two diagrams show a communication diagram and the sequence diagram that shows the same information. Although it is possible to derive the sequencing of messages in the communication diagram from the numbering scheme, it isn’t immediately visible. What the communication diagram does show quite clearly though, is the full set of messages passed between adjacent objects.