A lot has been said and written about UML, the Unified Modeling Language. Nevertheless, we meet people every day that misunderstand it. There are some who think that UML came to encompass all existing object-oriented analysis and design methods. Others believe that we finally have a formal method that we can apply to obtain unambiguous specifications. Some think that UML will be used as a programming language.
In order to clarify the confusion generated around UML and to discuss its philosophy, it will be useful to answer, during this workshop, a few fundamental questions. What is UML after all? Is UML the ultimate discovery that will solve the problems of developing large and complex software systems, and solve the problem of software maintenance? Is UML so useful that we are forced to use it, to learn it? What are UML strengths and weaknesses? In such a rich notation, is everything always useful? How can we use UML without getting bogged down in such a long list of techniques? How can we choose subsets of UML and use them successfully? What should rationally be expected from UML and what is it useful for? What is the impact of UML on industrial projects and academic programs?
