3.

0 ACTIVITY DIGRAM

An activity diagram represents the a series of actions in sequence. Activity diagrams are essentially flowcharts, rather similar in format to system flowcharts though used in a somewhat different way. They can show the flow across use cases or within a use case and also : The flow of control from activity to activity in the system, What activities can be done in parallel. Alternate paths through the flow.

Activity diagram describes how activities are coordinated. It is particularly useful when you know that an operation has to achieve a number of different things, and you want to model what the essential dependencies between them are, before you decide in what order to do them. Activity diagram records the dependencies between activities, such as which things can happen in parallel and what must be finished before something else can start. It is also represents the workflow of the process. An activity diagram is used to model a large activity's sequential work flow by focusing on action sequences and respective action initiating conditions. The state of an activity relates to the performance of each workflow step.

An activity diagram is represented by shapes that are connected by arrows. Arrows run from activity start to completion and represent the sequential order of performed activities. Black circles represent an initial workflow state. A circled black circle indicates an end state. Rounded rectangles represent performed actions, which are described by text inside each rectangle.

A diamond shape is used to represent a decision, which is a key activity diagram concept. Upon activity completion, a transition (or set of sequential activities) must be selected from a set of alternative transitions for all use cases.

Synchronization bars indicating the start or completion of concurrent activities are used to represent parallel sub flows.

3.0.1 Use of Activity Diagrams Activity diagram is used for aanalysing use cases, understanding workflow across many use cases and dealing with multi-threaded applications. Activity diagram cannot be used to see how objects collaborate and to see how an object behaves over its lifetime.

3.0.2 Modelling a workflow in an activity diagram Identify a workflow objective. Decide the pre and post-conditions of the workflow. Define all activities and states. Define any objects that are created or modified. Decide on responsibility for performing the activities. Connect all elements on the diagram with transitions. Place decisions on the diagram. Evaluate your diagram for concurrent workflows.

Set all actions, triggers and guard conditions in the specifications of each model element

3.0.3 Example of Activity Diagram

Activity Diagram for Receiving an Order

 Combined Activity Diagram