Sep 24 2007

Sequence Diagrams Made Easy

Published by Joana under Buzz, Technology

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Some of you may recognize the term “Message Sequence Chart” from your school days. It was that annoying technique that teachers loved to make us all use to show how we were going to go about a certain project or paper. That technique was incorporated into what is known as the Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagram and is most commonly referred to as a “Sequence Diagram”.

For some of you it may have been a while since you heard these terms thrown about so let me explain. A sequence diagram displays different processes, steps, or objects that exist and function simultaneously, as parallel vertical lines and horizontal arrows. This is ringing bells now isn’t it? :) When using this in regards to technology, it also displays the messages exchanged between them and in the order that they occur. Basical it’s the graphical representation of runtime, or if you’re doing this for a school teacher, a very annal step-by-step procedure mapping.

As you can guess, or remember maybe, these aren’t always easy to put together. And more often than not, when it comes to setting up a sequence diagram with multiple processes and messages, you’ll ind yourself making quite a few mistakes and having to start over. Using a sequence diagram tool like this one will not only make your life much easier but it’ll also save you time and money since you won’t have to spend hours revising and editing or pay someone else do create it for you.

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