Preface
Foreword to the First Edition
Today, software systems are generally complex products and the use of engi-
neering techniques is essential if the systems are to be produced successfully.
Over the last three decades, this finding, which is frequently quoted but is
now more than 30 years old, has led to intensive work on languages, meth-
ods, and tools in the IT field of Software Engineering to support the software
creation process. However, despite gr eat advances, we must concede that in
comparison with other much older engineering disciplines, many questions
still remain unanswered and new questions are constantly arising.
For example, a superficial comparison with the field of construction
quickly shows that in there, international standards have been set for creat-
ing models of buildings, analyzing the models, and then realizing the mod-
els in actual constructions. The distribution of roles and tasks is generally
accepted and there are professional groups such as architects, structural en-
gineers, as well as engineers for construction above and below ground.
This type of model-based approach is increasingly finding favor in soft-
ware development. In recent years in particular, this has led to international
attempts to define a generally accepted modeling language so tha t just like
in construction, a model created by a software architect can be analyzed by
a “software structural engineer” before it is implemented in executable pro-
grams by specialists responsible for the realization, i.e., programmers.
This standardized modeling language is the Unified Modeling Language
and it is subject to continuous further development by an international con-
sortium in a gradual process. Due to the wide range of interested parties in
the standardization process, the current version 2.0 of UML has emerged as
a language family with a great many open questions with regard to scope,
semantic foundation, and methodological use.
Over the past few years, Professor Rumpe has dedicated himself to this
problem in his scientific and practical work, the results of which are now
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