Workflow

Introduction

The UML suite supports models-to-code application development. In the UML suite, you progress from models to code by moving a project through the following phases of software development.

• Analysis
• System Design
• Object Design
• Implementation

Customizing phases

The UML suite provides the above four phases by default. Depending on the needs of your project or organization, you may want to insert additional phases, or delete them. To do so, you must define the number of phases and their order before you start creating them. See The UML Suite Customization Guide for more information.

Phase versions

In the UML suite, phases are not just conceptual, they are also objects in the repository. When you move from one phase to the next, you copy your package versions from one phase version to the next. For example, when you move from analysis to system design, you copy your package versions from the Analysis phase version to the System Design phase version.

Models are preserved

As you move from analysis to implementation, the nature of your model changes. However, because you copy (rather than move) your package versions from one phase version to the next, the models created during each phase are preserved.

Changes made to a package in one phase do not affect that package in any other phase. For example, after you move a package from the Analysis phase to the System Design phase, you can work on it without affecting the copy in the Analysis phase. You can still go back and change the package in the Analysis phase. If you do so, however, you should evaluate whether you need to update the System Design phase as a result.

Workflow

The following steps summarize the basic workflow for the UML suite project:

1. Create a project.
2. Create a configuration version.
3. Create an Analysis phase version in that configuration version.
4. Create one or more package versions in the Analysis phase version.
5. Create and populate diagrams in each package version, developing the package version to meet the objectives of the current phase.
6. Optionally, create a document version for each package version and generate formal project documentation.
7. Move the package versions to the next phase: create the new phase version in your configuration version and import the package versions to the new phase version.
8. Repeat steps 5 through 7 until you have moved all packages through all phases.

Analysis and System Design phases

The Analysis and System Design phases are independent of the target language.

Analysis

In the Analysis phase, you model the business situation without considering technical aspects, such as what operating systems, databases, or programming languages to use. End users must be able to understand the analysis models because they must validate them.

Analysis should not include implementation decisions. The analysis model states what must be done without placing restrictions on how it will be done. Worrying about implementation during this phase impedes your efforts to fully understand your customer requirements.

System Design

In the System Design phase, you design the application architecture, identify subsystems, and allocate the subsystems to specific hardware. Your objective is to create a high-level structure of the system, figuring out the classes required to build the functionality and organizing them so that related groups are defined and stored in packages.

During the System Design phase, you focus on the items you need to solve the problem. The decisions you make concern the graphical user interface (GUI), the database management system, and the hardware and software configuration.

Object Design and Implementation phases

The Object Design and Implementation phases address the issues specific to the target language and are designed to be used with the UML suite code generators. If you are not planning to generate code using the UML suite, you generally do not use these two phases.

Object Design

You carry out two tasks in the Object Design phase:

1. Choosing a UML suite code generator. This choice determines which object properties and Browser menu items are available to you.
2. Adding to the package versions the implementation details necessary for successful code generation.

Implementation

When you copy a package from the Object Design phase, the UML suite translates your model data into source code files. In the Implementation phase, you edit the generated source code files to refine and complete the application.

For more information

The UML Suite Code Generation Guide for your target language provides more information about the Object Design and Implementation phases, and complete instructions for generating code.