Activity Diagram
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Activity diagrams
● Activity diagrams describe the workflow
behavior of a system.
● Activity diagrams are used in process modeling and
analysis of during requirements engineering.
● A typical business process which synchronizes several
external incoming events can be represented by activity
diagrams.
● They are most useful for understanding work flow
analysis of synchronous behaviors across a process.
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Activity diagrams
● Activity diagrams are used for
● documenting existing process
● analyzing new Process Concepts
● finding reengineering opportunities.
● The diagrams describe the state of activities
by showing the sequence of activities
performed.
● they can show activities that are conditional or
parallel
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What is an Activity?
● Two definitions
● In a conceptual diagram, an
activity is some task that needs to
be done, whether by a human or
a computer
● In a specification-perspective
diagram or an
implementation-perspective
diagram, an activity is a method
on a class
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What is an Activity?
● Activity arrangement
● Sequential – one activity is
followed by another
● Parallel – two or more sets of
activities are performed
concurrently, and order is
irrelevant
● Interleaving is permitted – we can jump
between the parallel flows
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What is an Activity? (concluded)
● Activity Diagrams are used to describe activities
● Activity Diagrams are useful for
describing complicated methods
● Activity Diagrams are useful for
describing use cases, since, after
all, a use case is an interaction,
which is a form of activity
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What is an Activity? (concluded)
● Using Activity Diagrams with Use Cases
● Start with a coarse-grained use case, which is
composed of subordinate use cases
● For the complicated subordinate use cases,
use Activity Diagrams rather than Use Case
Diagrams
● Activity Diagrams are like Flow Charts, but Flow
Charts are usually limited to sequential activities
while Activity Diagrams can show parallel
activities as well
When to Use Activity Diagrams
● The main reason to use activity diagrams is to model the
workflow behind the system being designed.
● Activity Diagrams are also useful for:
● analyzing a use case by describing what actions need to take
place and when they should occur
● describing a complicated sequential algorithm
● modeling applications with parallel processes
● Activity Diagrams should not take the place of interaction
diagrams and state diagrams.
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Components
● An activity is an ongoing, though interruptible,
execution of a step in a workflow (such as an
operation or transaction)
● Represented with a rounded rectangle.
● Text in the activity box should represent an activity
(verb phrase in present tense).
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How to Draw an Activity Diagram
Diagrams are read from top to bottom and have branches
and forks to describe conditions and parallel activities.
● A fork is used when multiple activities are occurring at the
same time.
● A branch describes what activities will take place based on a
set of conditions.
● All branches at some point are followed by a merge to
indicate the end of the conditional behavior started by that
branch.
● After the merge all of the parallel activities must be combined
by a join before transitioning into the final activity state.
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Activity Diagram
Start State
Example
Fork Activity
To show
concurrent
activity, Branch
activity
diagrams
allow
branches and
joins.
Merge Join
End State
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Swimlane Diagrams
Allows the modeler
to represent the
flow of activities
described by the
use-case and at the
same time indicate
which actor (if there
are multiple actors
involved in a
specific use-case)
or analysis class
has responsibility
for the action
described by an
activity rectangle
Coming up: Activity Diagram Example
Use Case
● Withdraw money from a bank account
through an ATM
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Activity Diagrams - Notation
Start at the top black circle
If condition 1 is TRUE, go right; if
condition 2 is TRUE, go down
At first bar (a synchronization bar),
break apart to follow 2 parallel
paths
At second bar, come together to
proceed only when both parallel
activities are done
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Activity Diagrams – Notation (concluded)
Activity – an oval
Trigger – path exiting an activity
Guard – each trigger has a guard, a logical
expression that evaluates to “true” or
“false”
Synchronization Bar – can break a trigger
into multiple triggers operating in parallel
or can join multiple triggers into one when
all are complete
Decision Diamond – used to describe
nested decisions (the first decision is
indicated by an activity with multiple
triggers coming out of it)
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Activity Diagrams – Example 1 of 5
Use Case: Receiving an Order
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Activity Diagram – Example 2 of 5
Use Case: Receiving a Supply
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Activity Diagram – Example 3 of 5
Use Case: Receiving an Order
and Receiving a Supply
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Activity Diagram – Example 4 of 5
Swimlanes - Activity
Diagrams that show activities
by class
Arrange activity diagrams
into vertical zones separated
by lines
Each zone represents the
responsibilities of a particular
class (in this example, a
particular department)
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Activity Diagram – Example 5 of 5
Decomposing an
Activity
An activity can be
decomposed into a
further Activity
Diagram
When an Activity
Diagram represents a
decomposition of a
higher-level activity,
there can be only one
start point
Disadvantages
● A disadvantage of activity diagrams is that they do
not explicitly present which objects execute which
activities, and the way that the messaging works
between them.
● Labeling of each activity with the responsible object can
be done.
● It is useful to draw an activity diagram early in the
modeling of a process, to help understand the overall
process.
● Then interaction diagrams can be used to help you
allocate activities to classes.
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