Developing Sequence Diagrams in UML

The UML (Unified Modeling Language) has been widely accepted as a standard language for object-oriented analysis and design. Among the UML diagrams, one of the most difficult and time-consuming diagrams to develop is the object interaction diagram (OID), which is rendered as either a sequence diagram or a collaboration diagram. Our experience shows that developers have significant trouble in understanding and developing OIDs. In this paper, we present an effective ten-step heuristic for developing sequence diagrams and illustrate the technique with a case study. In this technique, we show a proper use of control objects and boundary objects when developing sequence diagrams. In our heuristic the relationships among multiple sequence diagrams in a single use case are elegantly represented using control objects. We found that developers effectively developed sequence diagrams using this heuristic method.