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Record W4237331277 · doi:10.1145/944889.944891

Designing UML diagrams for technical documentation

2003· article· en· W4237331277 on OpenAlexaffabout
Neil J. MacKinnon, Steve Murphy

Bibliographic record

Venuenot available
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldComputer Science
TopicSoftware Engineering Research
Canadian institutionsIBM (Canada)
Fundersnot available
KeywordsComputer scienceUnified Modeling LanguageDocumentationUML toolApplications of UMLSoftware engineeringActivity diagramClass diagramUse Case DiagramTechnical documentationCommunication diagramProgramming languageSoftware

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

This paper presents a framework for improving the presentation of Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams, as applied in technical documentation produced at the IBM Toronto Software Laboratory. UML diagrams are a key part of program design. They can enhance understanding of complex programming concepts, and assist in problem analysis and solution design. In turn, UML diagrams can add significant value to documentation, helping the user to understand not only the solution but also the reasons for using that particular solution. Too often, however, UML diagrams are created in isolation by a developer, with little or no thought as to how they will be presented in documentation, be it online, in a PDF file, or in a printed book. This compartmentalization does not allow for the possibility that a diagram that was useful in the design phase of a project will not necessarily bring value to documentation if its stated processes or goals are unclear. Poorly designed UML diagrams can also have a negative impact on both project scheduling and costs. For example, production delays can arise because of increased back-and-forth time among developers, writers, and designers, and translation costs can escalate if a diagram contains text that must be translated.This paper presents a method for ensuring a collaborative process for UML diagram design. It provides specific tasks for each of the three key roles in developing UML diagrams for documentation: program developer, technical writer, and graphic designer. It makes the program developer aware of design principles that might otherwise be overlooked. It shows the technical writer ways to improve the design of the diagram, and offers a method for converting files to a common format that can then be utilized by the graphic designer. Finally, it provides the graphic designer with a methodology for quickly producing a clear, error-free final image that is manageable in size. By following the guidelines presented here, developers, writers, and designers can work together to produce clean, concise UML diagrams that will bring value and clarity to technical information. This clearly defined process will help eliminate miscommunication, shorten development schedules, and reduce production and translation costs.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.033
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.050
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Not applicable · Consensus signal: none
GenreCandidate signal: Methods · Consensus signal: Methods
Teacher disagreement score0.033
Threshold uncertainty score0.173

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0330.050
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0030.003
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0010.003
Bibliometrics0.0100.006
Science and technology studies0.0030.003
Scholarly communication0.0090.012
Open science0.0050.006
Research integrity0.0040.005
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0110.008

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.025
GPT teacher head0.309
Teacher spread0.283 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designNot applicable
Domainnot available
GenreMethods

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

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Citations0
Published2003
Admission routes2
Has abstractyes

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