**Unified Modeling Language - an ISO Standard for visualizing system design.** Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose modeling language intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of systems. It is managed by an organization called the "Object Management Group" (OMG), and adopted as an [[ISO]] standard. It was developed with Software Engineering in mind, but has broadened out to be used in a variety of contexts, notably including Systems Modeling ([[SysML]]). The SysML specification (pre-v2.0) actually requires the UML specification as part of its “full spec”. UML is currently in version **2.5**, and contains over a dozen types of diagrams, split broadly into "Structural" diagrams and "Behavioral" diagrams. It is a large language when compared to IDEF ([[IDEF]]). Specifications are available from [http://omg.org/spec/UML](http://omg.org/spec/UML). However v2.5.1 is **796** pages long. UML is _big_. But you only need to know a tiny fraction of UML to make it useful. UML is a tool. It can be useful, but it can also be entirely foregone in lieu of some basic informal boxes with lines. **** # More ## Source [Unified Modeling Language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Modeling_Language) ## Related - [[IDEF]] - [[Entity-Relationship Diagrams]] - [[ISO]] - [[SysML]] - [[UML Criticism]] - [[Diagram Types (index)]]