Until recently, the most popular object-oriented software development methodologies were object modeling technique (OMT) [Rumbaugh et al., 1991] and Grady Booch's method [Booch, 1994]. OMT was developed by Jim Rumbaugh and his team at the General Elec- tric Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York, whereas Grady Booch developed his method at Rational, Inc., in Santa Clara, California. All object-oriented soft- ware development methodologies essentially are equivalent, so the differences between OMT and Booch's method are small. Nevertheless, there always was a friendly rivalry between the supporters of the two camps.
This changed in October 1994, when Rumbaugh joined Booch at Rational. The two methodologists immediately began to work together to develop a methodology that would combine OMT and Booch's method. When a preliminary version of their work was pub- lished, it was pointed out that they had not developed a methodology but merely a notation for representing an object-oriented software product. The name Unified Methodology was quickly changed to Unified Modeling Language (UML). In 1995, they were joined at Rational by Ivar Jacobson, author of the Objectory methodology. Booch, Jacobson, and Rumbaugh, affectionately called the "Three Amigos" (after the 1986 John Landis movie Three Amigos! with Chevy Chase and Steve Martin), then worked together. Version 1.0 of UML, published in 1997, took the software engineering world by storm. Until then, there had been no universally accepted notation for the development of a software product. Almost overnight UML was used all over the world. The Object Management Group (OMG), an association of the world's leading companies in object technology, took the responsibility for organizing an international standard for UML, so that every software professional would use the same
version of UML, thereby promoting communication among individuals within an organi-
zation as well as companies worldwide. UML [Booch, Rumbaugh, and Jacobson, 1999] is today the unquestioned international standard notation for representing object-oriented software products.
An orchestral score shows which musical instruments are needed to play the piece, the
notes each instrument is to play and when it is to play them, as well as a whole host of technical information such as the key signature, tempo, and loudness. Could this informa- tion be given in English, rather than a diagram? Probably, but it would be impossible to play music from such a description. For example, there is no way a pianist and a violinist could perform a piece described as follows: "The music is in march time, in the key of B minor. The first bar begins with the A above middle C on the violin (a quarter note). While this note is being played, the pianist plays a chord consisting of seven notes. The right hand plays the
following four notes: E sharp above middle C . . ."
It is clear that, in some fields, a textual description simply cannot replace a diagram. Music is one such field; software development is another. And for software development, the best modeling language available today is UML.
Taking the software engineering world by storm with UML was not enough for the Three Amigos. Their next endeavor was to publish a complete software development methodol- ogy that unified their three separate methodologies. This unified methodology was first called the Rational Unified Process (RUP); Rational is in the name of the methodology not because the Three Amigos considered all other approaches to be irrational, but because at that time all three were senior managers at Rational, Inc. (Rational was bought by IBM in 2003). In their book on RUP [Jacobson, Booch, and Rumbaugh, 1999], the name Unified Software Development Process (USDP) was used. The term Unified Process is generally used today, for brevity.
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