Shortcuts in UML activity diagrams
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From: Martin Bialasinski on 22 Aug 2007 09:55 Hello everybody, I have a questions about shortcuts in UML activity diagrams. My goal is to create a compact, terse diagram. (Crude) Example: A user selected several products. in the next activity, he has to select a color for each product that comes in multiple colors. I use an expansion region as a loop over the collection of the input data. Inside the region, one could use a regular branch/merge construct with a "select color" activity path and a no activity path. I am wondering if there is a more compact way to express this. I was thinking about attaching a note to the "select color" activity reading "only products with color choice". In the spirit of «decisionInput» notes attached to branch nodes. Is this an acceptable shortcut? Bye, Martin
From: H. S. Lahman on 22 Aug 2007 17:14 Responding to Bialasinski... > I have a questions about shortcuts in UML activity diagrams. My goal > is to create a compact, terse diagram. > > (Crude) Example: A user selected several products. in the next > activity, he has to select a color for each product that comes in > multiple colors. (select products) | | products | V (select product colors) | | products | V ... > > I use an expansion region as a loop over the collection of the input > data. Inside the region, one could use a regular branch/merge > construct with a "select color" activity path and a no activity path. This level of detail would be a lot easier to express in a text-based abstract action language (AAL) because it is fully contained in a single process (method). Traditionally ADs (aka Data Flow Diagrams) were used to graphically describe what went on within individual methods. However, when one needed to add a bubble it was always in middle of the densest part of the diagram and one spent 15 minutes re-doing the layout. So when AALs came along in the late '80s they were quickly adopted. So today ADs are primarily used for describing large scale activities that span objects. At that level of abstraction, one regards the individual processes as self-contained and logically indivisible. IOW, one will look to individual object method or state machine action descriptions for the details rather than the AD. ************* There is nothing wrong with me that could not be cured by a capful of Drano. H. S. Lahman hsl(a)pathfindermda.com Pathfinder Solutions http://www.pathfindermda.com blog: http://pathfinderpeople.blogs.com/hslahman "Model-Based Translation: The Next Step in Agile Development". Email info(a)pathfindermda.com for your copy. Pathfinder is hiring: http://www.pathfindermda.com/about_us/careers_pos3.php. (888)OOA-PATH
From: Phlip on 22 Aug 2007 23:05 Martin Bialasinski wrote: > Is this an acceptable shortcut? Yes. Anything to cut clutter and get to a point! Think of UML as a Google Maps route, with a path between two points. You don't drag in other states, and you do highlight that one route. -- Phlip http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596510657/ "Test Driven Ajax (on Rails)" assert_xpath, assert_javascript, & assert_ajax
From: Martin Bialasinski on 24 Aug 2007 17:40
Thank youboth for your answers, they help greatly. I am working on an article for a journal and want to describe a process with its key elements and key decisions. I want to use the diagram as an aid for the reader, so I try to keep it as terse as possible but still formally correct. I see I am on the right track. Bye, Martin |