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Chapter 1 What Is UML?
It is important to point out that many other methods provided some of the same
three key factors. The difference is that they did not aggressively seek to combine
their efforts to address the bigger picture, a standards-based approach to modeling
software. In October 1994, Grady Booch and Jim Rumbaugh, working at Rational
Software Corp., started merging their two methods. The independent evolution of
their two products was bringing the methods closer together anyway; Booch was
adopting more of an analysis focus and Rumbaugh was assuming more of a design
focus. Now the deliberate reconciliation began in earnest. The effort resulted in a
greatly simplified notation and a deliberate effort to address the need for a true lan-
guage architecture rather than simply a notation. An architectural approach would
bring the needed semantic integrity and consistency for a durable standard.
A year later, in the fall of 1995, Booch and Rumbaugh had completed the first draft
of the merged method referred to as Unified Modeling Language version 0.8. About
the time that the draft was completed, Ivar Jacobson and his company, called
Objectory, joined Rational Software Corp., and the “three amigos” Booch,
Rumbaugh, and Jacobson began integrating OOSE into the UML standard. The
use-case concept brought to UML the essential user-centric elements that com-
pleted the range of features to make UML the comprehensive standard that it
needed to be to gain wide acceptance.
Booch, Rumbaugh, and Jacobson established four goals for the Unified Modeling
Language:
1. Enable the modeling of systems (not just software) using object-oriented
concepts
2. Establish an explicit coupling to conceptual as well as executable artifacts
3. Address the issues of scale inherent in complex, mission-critical systems
4. Create a modeling language usable by both humans and machines
(UML 1.4, pgs. 1-12,13)
The result of the collaborative effort of the three amigos was the release of UML
versions 0.9 and 0.9.1 in the fall of 1996. However, despite the fact that they sought
feedback from the development community, they recognized the need for broader
involvement if the UML was truly to be a standard.
Enter the Object Management Group (OMG), the standards body that brought us
CORBA, Interface Definition Language (IDL), and the CORBA Internet Inter-ORB
Protocol (IIOP). By this time UML was being recognized as vital to the goals of many
companies. It was in their best interest to see that the standard get the support it
needed to be completed. In response to this overwhelming need, the OMG pub-
lished a Request for Proposal (RFP), and then the Rational Software Corporation
created the UML Partners consortium, which was committed to finishing what the
three amigos had started. Contributing members of the consortium included a mix
of vendors and system integrators: Digital Equipment Corporation, HP, i-Logix,
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