Models help us by letting us work at a higher level of abstraction. A model may do this by hiding or masking details, bringing out the big picture, or by focusing on different aspects of the prototype.
Modeling is an Essential Part of large software projects, and helpful to medium and even small projects as well. A model plays the analogous role in software development that blueprints and other plans (site maps, elevations, physical models) play in the building of a skyscraper.
UML (Unified Modeling Language) is a standard notation for the modeling of real-world objects as a first step in developing an object-oriented design methodology. Its notation is derived from and unifies the notations of three object-oriented design and analysis methodologies:
- Grady Booch’s methodology for describing a set of objects and their relationships
- James Rumbaugh’s Object-Modeling Technique (OMT)
- Ivar Jacobson’s approach which includes a use case methodology
