UML: The Birth and Rise of a Standard Modeling Notation

Officially the Unified Modeling Language UML is a graphical language for visualizing, specifying, constructing and documenting the artifacts of a software-intensive system. For many, UML is much more than that and symbolizes the transition from code-oriented to model-oriented software production techniques. It is very likely that, in a historical perspective, UML will be given credit for the perspectives opened as well as for the direct achievements realized. This introductory paper presents some of the characteristics of the notation and discusses some of the perspectives that have been and that are being opened by the UML proposal.