On tool selection for illustrating the use of UML in system development

  • Authors:
  • Harold H. Smith

  • Affiliations:
  • Pennsylvania State University, Upper Burrell, PA

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges
  • Year:
  • 2004

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Abstract

With the pervasiveness of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) used as the de facto notation for communicating the specification, design and behavior of a system, numerous software tools are available that provide various levels of support for and use of UML. The inclusion of both UML and UML-based software tools into undergraduate curriculum is common. Selecting the appropriate tools for the curriculum is difficult. This paper identifies three categories of UML-based tools, UML Drawing Tools, UML Code-Centric Tools and UML Framework Tools, and the respective advantages and disadvantages of incorporating tool instances of each category. Based on the discussion, a recommendation is made to adopt a combination of these tools, potentially one of each type.