UML 3.0 and the future of modeling

Themajor revision work for UML 2.0 is complete, and it is now an OMG Final Adopted Specification. This is a good time to reflect on UML’s future, and the future of modeldriven development. In April 2003 the U2 Partners submission team completed the final editing changes to the third revision of its Unified Modeling Language (UML) 2.0 Superstructure proposal, and submitted it to the Object Management Group (OMG) for consideration [1]. Since the Superstructure final submission specified the high-level constructs and diagrams that users commonly identify with UML, this was the last and most important submission of the four UML 2.0 revision processes.1 The OMGAnalysis and Design Task Force (ADTF) unanimously recommended that the OMG adopt the Superstructure final submission in June 2003, and the OMG classified it as a Final Adopted Specification in August 2003 [2]. The adoption of the UML 2.0 Superstructure final submission marked the culmination of 3 1/2 years of major revision process, which started with the drafting of UML 2.0 Requests for Proposals in early 2000. It also marked the fruition of 2 3/4 years of intensive proposal and specification writing by the largest submission team in the history of the OMG. By the time that we had finished, the U2 Partners submission team consisted of over fifty companies and organizations that were either submitters or supporters. Given the heated politicking that occurred throughout the UML 2.0 revision process, the Task Force’s unanimous vote to recommend the Superstructure for adoption was anticlimactic. From a personal perspective, the recommended adoption of the UML 2.0 Superstructure submission occurred after more than six years of leading, and more than seven years of participating in, UML standardization efforts.