Communication diagram

Example of a Communication diagram.

UML diagrams
Structural UML diagrams
Class diagram
Component diagram
Composite structure diagram
Deployment diagram
Object diagram
Package diagram
Profile diagram
Behavioural UML diagrams
Activity diagram
Communication diagram
Interaction overview diagram
Sequence diagram
State diagram
Timing diagram
Use case diagram

A communication diagram in the Unified Modeling Language (UML) 2.0, is a simplified version of the UML 1.x collaboration diagram.^[1]

UML has four types of interaction diagrams:

• Sequence diagram
• Communication diagram
• Interaction overview diagram
• Timing diagram

A Communication diagram models the interactions between objects or parts in terms of sequenced messages. Communication diagrams represent a combination of information taken from Class, Sequence, and Use Case Diagrams describing both the static structure and dynamic behavior of a system.

However, communication diagrams use the free-form arrangement of objects and links as used in Object diagrams. In order to maintain the ordering of messages in such a free-form diagram, messages are labeled with a chronological number and placed near the link the message is sent over. Reading a communication diagram involves starting at message 1.0, and following the messages from object to object.

Communication diagrams show a lot of the same information as sequence diagrams, but because of how the information is presented, some of it is easier to find in one diagram than the other. Communication diagrams show which elements each one interacts with better, but sequence diagrams show the order in which the interactions take place more clearly.

References

1. ^ Fowler, Martin (2004), UML distilled: a brief guide to the standard object modeling language (3 ed.), Addison-Wesley, p. 131, ISBN 9780321193681 

External links

• Communication Diagrams in UML 2