The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a standard language for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of software systems. The UML represents a collection of best engineering practices that have proven successful in modeling large and complex systems.
The UML is a graphical representation of an algorithm, workflow, or process. The diagram shows the steps as boxes of various kinds and their order by connecting the boxes with arrows. This allows you to construct many scenarios using a flowchart.
An activity diagram is a graphical representation of a process or workflow. It is essentially a flow chart showing the sequence of activities. Activity diagrams are used to model many procedures, such as business, software development, and manufacturing processes.
One of the main benefits of using activity diagrams is that they can be used to model simple and complex processes. This makes them versatile tools that can be used in various situations. Another benefit of activity diagrams is that they can be used to communicate the process to multiple people. This is because the diagram is graphical in nature and easy to understand.
There are a few different elements that are used in activity diagrams. These elements include,
- Activity
This is the primary element in an activity diagram. It represents a single action or task that must be completed.
- swimlane
This element is used to group activities together. Swimlanes can be used to represent different roles or different parts of a process.
- Fork
This element splits a process into multiple parallel branches.
- Join
This element joins multiple parallel branches into a single process.
- Decision
This element is used to model a decision point in a process.
More information from Microsoft is here.
Learn more about,
- https://www.uml-diagrams.org/
- https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/unified-modeling-language-uml-introduction/?ref=gcse
- https://www.tutorialspoint.com/uml/index.htm
- https://developer.ibm.com/articles/an-introduction-to-uml/
- https://www.lucidchart.com/
- https://www.guru99.com/uml-tutorial.html
- https://www.uml-diagrams.org/uml-25-diagrams.html#structure-diagram