Better Requirements through Graphical UML Models

The primary reason that projects deliver significantly less value than customers expect-or fail outright-is incomplete, ambiguous, or poorly understood requirements. Because text-based requirements have been the norm, perhaps they are a part of the problem. Text-based requirements documents have difficulty expressing the needs, desires, and constraints of stakeholders because they use words that, by nature, can have multiple meanings and interpretations. Tom Bullinger suggests that there is a better option for documenting and communicating requirements: a graphical model employing Unified Modeling Language (UML) constructs-activity diagrams, sequence diagrams, and static relationship diagrams-that provide a richer and more expressive language. Join Tom to learn the basics of graphical UML models and see for yourself how visual models can express requirements in a more precise and understandable format.

• Use graphical UML models to understand and communicate requirements
• Learn techniques to visually represent system behaviors
• Understand how to represent all system behaviors through graphical models