Objects

Rational Rose allows objects on activity, collaboration, and sequence diagrams. Specific to activity diagrams, objects are model elements that represent something you can feel and touch. It might be helpful to think of objects as the nouns of the activity diagram and activities as the verbs of the activity diagram. Further, objects on activity diagrams allow you to diagram the input and output relationships between activities. In Figure 50 on page 116, the Submit Defect and Fix Defects activities can be thought of as the verbs and the Defect objects can be thought of as the nouns in the activity diagram vocabulary. Objects are connected to activities through object flows.

Figure 50 Objects on an Activity Diagram Sample

Most objects can appear in an infinite number of states. For example, look at both instances of the Defect object. In one instance, the customer (noted by the swimlane) placed the defect in a [submitted] state. In the other, the software engineer (noted by the swimlane) placed the defect in a [fixed] state. Each time you associate a new state with an object, a new state appears in the browser along with the object. You may specify more details of the object's state in the state specification.