UML for the Software Developer, Part 1: Building Classes
Whatever language you code in, however you feel about documentation, and whichever process you ascribe to—you will need to model. Whether those models are in a formal charter, reference document, part of a diagram, or on the back of a napkin, you as a software developer will end up using models or modeling yourself.
by Mark Goetsch
November 18, 2004
hy do we need to model software? After all, aren't the acts of coding and refactoring of that code enough? That depends on what is meant by enough! You could code up some software, hand it in, and go through a constant refactoring process with the client. This is how most software is developed today. However, times are changing. A decade ago, a game would have been developed by a single developer in the basement. Graphics were primitive and it was enough to produce a few sprites, some cute screens, and an occasional story line.
Today it takes a team of experts. Graphics gods, story tellers, and code gurus all come together to develop the newest and latest games. The bar has been raised. This is the future of software development—the developer will be joined by requirements experts, GUI masters, and software designers/architects. The teams that operate this way will raise the bar for the client, just as in the game industry. Communicating in bits, bytes, and code will be replaced by a common language, from requirements and design to coding and transition. Code will be developed from common models to meet the client's requirements and needs. This is why you need to know something about modeling software.
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hy do we need to model software? After all, aren't the acts of coding and refactoring of that code enough? That depends on what is meant by enough! You could code up some software, hand it in, and go through a constant refactoring process with the client. This is how most software is developed today. However, times are changing. A decade ago, a game would have been developed by a single developer in the basement. Graphics were primitive and it was enough to produce a few sprites, some cute screens, and an occasional story line. 
