Developing Applications with Java™ and UML

Object Diagrams

A UML object diagram is an improvisation of a class diagram, a snapshot of the lifecycle of a collection of objects. Like the balance sheet for a company, it is current only as of the time it is printed or rendered. Depending on the audience, however, an object diagram can help depict classes from a “right here and now” perspective. It is most often used to depict a live example to management and to members of the organization who are not as familiar with the project as the project team is.

Figure 5-16 shows an example of an object diagram for customer Mike Richardson and his two orders with Remulak Productions. The object diagram is read as follows: The R. Michael Richardson object of class Customer is linked to both the 123356 ...