UML Fever

CowboyRobot writes "Queue has a couple of articles about UML: Death by UML Fever by Boeing software architect Alex Bell describes the problems that can result from over-reliance on modeling tools, with lighthearted lessons for the software development process in general and numerous illuminating quotations, such as: "Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment. - Jim Horning." Then, one of the developers of UML, Grady Booch of IBM, follows with The Fever is Real, in which he explains the motivations for creating the language, how it's used today, and where he expects it to go soon."

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[jkbull]

Death by UML Fever

From DSP
Vol. 2, No. 1 - March 2004
by Alex E. Bell, The Boeing Company
Self-diagnosis and early treatment are crucial in the fight against UML Fever.

UML

A potentially deadly illness, clinically referred to as UML (Unified Modeling Language) fever, is plaguing many software-engineering efforts today. This fever has many different strains that vary in levels of lethality and contagion. A number of these strains are symptomatically related, however. Rigorous laboratory analysis has revealed that each is unique in origin and makeup. A particularly insidious characteristic of UML fever, common to most of its assorted strains, is the difficulty individuals and organizations have in self-diagnosing the affliction. A consequence is that many cases of the fever go untreated and often evolve into more complex and lethal strains.

Little has been published in medical annals on UML fever because it has only recently emerged as an affliction. The New England Journal of Medicine has been silent on the disease, as has research produced by the world's most prestigious medical institutions. The content of this article represents many years of on-the-job research and characterizes all known strains of UML fever, as well as many of the known relationships recognized to exist between them. The article will conclude with disclosure of the only known antidote for the many and varied strains of UML fever.

Before commencing with the characterization of UML fever and its associated symptoms, it is important to emphasize that UML itself is not the direct cause of any maladies described herein. Instead, UML is largely an innocent victim caught in the midst of poor process, no process, or sheer incompetence of its users. Through no fault of its own, however, UML sometimes does amplify the symptoms of some fevers as the result of the often divine-like aura attached to it. For example, it is not uncommon for people to believe that no matter what task they may be engaged in, mere usage of UML somehow legitimizes their efforts or guarantees the value of the artifacts produced.

This article exploits the fact that the presence and associated severity of many software-related maladies on a program can often be observed and measured in terms of UML: too much, too detailed, and too functional, for example. Some readers may be quick to suggest that the same exploitation could be made regardless of a program's selected modeling approach. There may be some truth here, but no other technology has so quickly and deeply permeated the software-engineering life cycle quite like UML.

The Metafevers

Extensive research has shown that UML fever can be categorized into four well-defined groups, known as metafevers. Their common laboratory names are delusional, emotional, Pollyanna (a person regarded as being foolishly or blindly optimistic), and procedural (see figure 1). Each of these metafevers is described in the following sections, as are the strains associated with them. Although much more is known about each of the strains than written, the objective of this particular article is to describe them to the extent that they are characterized and distinguishable from the others.

Delusional Metafever.The delusional metafever comprises UML fever strains that are considered by many to be among the most deadly. This metafever is best known by its devastating effects on the thought and judgment processes of otherwise healthy managers and engineers. It is very common for the fevers in the delusional category to damage the human immune system to such an extent that the body becomes susceptible to many other UML fever strains (see figure 2).

Utopia fever.Subjects afflicted with utopia fever typically believe that UML is a radical new technology with almost divine origins. Mutterings such as, "How did we get where we are today without UML?" and "Just think how much more advanced our technological revolution would be if we only had UML 20 years ago?" are common amo