Resumen
The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is at a crossroads of proposed revisions that will bring it closer to meeting user needs and winning tool-vendor commitment. Object Management Group Inc. (OMG) began in 1989 as the developer of the CORBA standards. In 1995, computer engineer Mary Loomis and others led it to issue a request for a facility to enable the sharing of models among tools. Instead of a model-sharing facility, OMG was offered and ultimately adopted UML1, a modeling language combining and conforming a number of important modeling techniques and establishing a uniform graphical notation. Unfortunately, while UML1 unified several of the competing schools of modeling, some equally important ideas for good object-oriented design did not influence UML1, including the responsibility-driven design concepts and the elegant systems engineering viewpoint of computer scientists Sally Shlaer and Stephen Mellon. OMG now expects to adopt a UML2 standard sometime in 2003. A yet unnamed standard for diagram interchange is also expected, aiming to make models truly portable. INSETS: OMG and UML; UML2 Proposal Scorecard.