What is a Class Diagram?

In software engineering, a class diagram in the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a type of static structure diagram that describes the structure of a system by showing the system's classes, their attributes, operations (or methods), and the relationships among objects. The main purpose of class diagram is to provide information about “How the system is Structured rather than how it behaves”. It plays a very imp role during system design.

Class diagrams are more popular now a days as we are moving more towards Object Oriented modelling rather then procedural programming. Classes used in class diagram can directly be mapped on Object-Oriented modeling.

Purpose of Class Diagrams:

• Shows static structure of classifiers in a system
• Diagram provides basic notation for other structure diagrams prescribed by UML
• Helpful for developers and other team members too
• Business Analysts can use class diagrams to model systems from business perspective

Useful UML Resources

• OMG UML Specification
• Cross-Platform UML modeling software
• UML tutorials