Abstract:
This paper describes a design experience in which UML was used in a non-traditional way, that of modeling an electronic software engineering handbook. The handbook was created by eleven students who took a graduate course in software engineering during Spring 2006 at the University of Nevada, Reno, USA. While all other course projects involved developing software applications, the electronic handbook project required putting together a comprehensive repository of student reviews on significant software engineering articles, thus creating an expandable technical report on the discipline's current landscape and future directions. By accessing this repository, one is able to adequately peruse a plethora of information on various software engineering topics and better comprehend the discipline's vernacular. This paper covers the UML-based specification and design process of the electronic handbook and provides details of the end product. Furthermore, it shows that UML can be used as a powerful modeling tool outside the software development domain. Several pointers to future developments are also presented in the paper.