Another new, but untested opportunity lies in using UML to model the business processes that are an integral part of many Web service applications. UML activity diagrams are a good match for these process models, but this task is often performed by a business analyst via graphical development tools, such as the business process orchestration tool provided by Microsoft's BizTalk Server. The challenge for UML tool vendors is to make activity modeling available without intimidating new users unfamiliar with the language's finer points and its nine diagram types. Special-purpose tools should be based on standard UML and share a common model repository with general-purpose modeling tools such as Rational Rose or TogetherSoft. I've created a Web portal, at http://XMLmodeling.com, that focuses on the topics introduced here. It includes case-study white papers about creating UML models for several widely used XML schemas, such as UDDI and XHTML, and many links to related products and open source tools. I also provide a Web-based tool for generating XML schemas from UML models that have been exported to the standard XMI interchange format.

　　In order to help you apply these ideas to your own e-business projects, I offer these tips for success:

　　Contrary to popular belief, thoughtful analysis doesn't mean slow development.
UML is a large and sometimes complex language; use only what you need and ignore the rest.
Create a common UML model that drives both the XML schema definition and other non-XML system components. Many systems use XML in a subset of their components, but the analysis must be done holistically.
Define the conceptual model of your XML vocabulary before, or in parallel with, its implementation in the XML schema.
References

　　This article contains excerpts from Chapters 1 and 4 of Modeling XML Applications with UML: Practical E-Business Applications, by David Carlson (Addison-Wesley, 2001. Reproduced by permission of Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved.). This book follows a full system development life cycle based on a product catalog application design.
Object Management Group (OMG) Model Driven Architecture (MDA), www.omg.org/mda
OMG XML Meta-data Interchange (XMI) 2.0 specification draft, http://cgi.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/01-06-12

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