For this study, our aim was to find out how extensively the Unified Modelling Language or UML had
been studied through empirical forms. While the UML has become a de facto standard for describing
object-oriented designs, its origins do not have any theoretical or analytical underpinnings, stemming
more from a series of compromises made when a number of object-oriented ‘gurus’ joined up to create
a ‘unified’ model for software development. There are now many books on using the UML, there is
support provided for it in many software development environments, and the Object Management Group
(OMG) have now produced version 2.0 (with a total of 13 diagrammatic notations)4
. However, like many
software engineering forms and practices, neither the elements of the UML nor their use would appear
to have been scrutinised very closely.