Begin the UML Course Project

To provide a hands-on opportunity to explore the diagramming techniques, we will work on modeling an inventory control system. Although you will not be able to build a complete model, there will be ample opportunity to try the UML modeling notation in a reasonably realistic setting.

The goal is to build at least one of each type of diagram to model the functionality of an inventory control system. Beginning at user requirements and progressing through logical modeling of classes and objects and their interactions, you will proceed to process modeling, component definition, and finally installation. In each module, we will identify the use of each diagram and the notation used to express the model fully. In the next module, the four classifications of the models included in the UML will be discussed.

Between corporate restructuring and economic ups and downs, teams are constantly changing. The typical mode of each developer keeping everything in her head or in what she believes is well-documented code produces a tremendous liability. As people move from project to project and as priorities shift and budgets are cut, the knowledge of the system goes away with the well-meaning people who last worked on it. Many of you are living with this problem today. Two years ago, when companies were throwing money at IT, you had plenty of staff to cover each system. Since the summer of 2011 the situation has changed substantially. Where you once had people dedicated to each system, you now have one person covering five systems that he has never seen before.
Without a description of the workings of the system, the only way to know how to make changes is to read thousands of lines of code. While the staff is reading, it isn't making the badly needed changes. When changes are made, no one can be certain that they are the right changes. A system is a corporate asset and as such it must live beyond the participation of any one individual, and it must do so without incurring the overhead of rewriting with every change in personnel.

Click the Exercise link below to begin the course project.
Course Project