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Getting Started with UML:

The Unified Modeling Language™ - UML - is OMG's most-used specification, and the way the world models not only application structure, behavior, and architecture, but also business process and data structure.

UML, along with the Meta Object Facility (MOF™), also provides a key foundation for OMG's Model-Driven Architecture®, which unifies every step of development and integration from business modeling, through architectural and application modeling, to development, deployment, maintenance, and evolution.

OMG is a not-for-profit computer industry specifications consortium; our members define and maintain the UML specification which we publish in the series of documents linked on this page for your free download. Software providers of every kind build tools that conform to these specifications. To model in UML, you'll have to obtain a compliant modeling tool from one of these providers and learn how to use it. The links at the bottom of this page will help you do that.

If you're new to modeling and UML, start with our own Introduction to UML, here, and possibly this piece on the benefits of modeling to your application development cycle.

What's on this page? Lots of links to:

The current UML specification for free download Standard UML Profiles and related specifications Articles about UML UML Resource Pages UML Tutorials OMG's UML Professional Certification Program Lists of UML Tools Materials about Modeling Methodologies

If you're a modeler, especially if you're just starting out, you will probably find the specifications themselves a bit hard to read. Keep in mind that they're the formal definition of the modeling language itself, and not an instruction book on "How to Model Using UML". To learn about modeling, start with the tutorials linked near the bottom of this page, and follow up with training from one of these OMG member companies, or pick up one of the hundred-plus