OOSE LAB

Topic: Activity Diagram

Submitted By

Software Engineering Department

 Activity Diagram
What is activity diagram?
Activity diagram is basically a flowchart to represent the flow from one activity to another activity.

Purpose of the activity diagram

 Draw the activity flow of the system.
 Describe the sequence from one activity to another.
 Describe the parallel, branched, and concurrent flow of the system.

Uses of the activity diagram

 Modeling work flow by using activities.
 Modeling business requirement.
 High level understanding of the system’s functionalities.
 Investigating business requirement at a later stage

Element of Activity diagram

Initial State or Start Point

A small filled circle followed by an arrow represents the initial action state or the start point for any
activity diagram.

Activity or Action State

An action state represents the non-interruptible action of objects. We can draw an action state using a
rectangle with rounded corners.

Action Flow
Action flows, also called edges and paths, illustrate the transitions from one action state to another. They
are usually drawn with an arrowed line.
Decisions and Branching
A diamond represents a decision with alternate paths. When an activity requires a decision prior to
moving on to the next activity, add a diamond between the two activities. The outgoing alternates should
be labeled with a condition or guard expression. You can also label one of the paths "else."

Merge Event
A merge event brings together multiple flows that are not concurrent.

Final State or End Point

An arrow pointing to a filled circle nested inside another circle represents the final action state.

Fork
A fork has one flow entering and several exiting. A fork denotes that several processes are occurring in
parallel.
Join
A join has several flows entering it and one exiting it. A join denotes that multiple parallel flows are
merging at a single point. All flows going into the join must be completed before the next activity can
start.

Swimlanes
Swimlanes group related activities into one column.
How to create activity diagram
Activity diagram is a kind of UML diagram that shows flow of control from activity to activity. It
shows concurrency, branch, control flow and object flow. Furthermore, swimlane is used for
partitioning actions based on the participants involved.
Creating activity diagram
Perform the steps below to create a UML activity diagram in Visual Paradigm.
 Select Diagram > New from the application toolbar.
 In the New Diagram window, select Activity Diagram.
 Click Next.
 Enter the diagram name and description. The Location field enables you to select a model to
store the diagram.
 Click OK

Creating initial node

 Click Initial Node on the diagram toolbar.

 Click inside the partition to create the initial node there.

Creating action
 Move your mouse pointer over the source shape.
 Press on the Resource Catalog button and drag it out.

 Release the mouse button at the place where you want the action to be created.
 Select Control Flow -> Action from Resource Catalog.
  A new action will be created and is connected to the source shape with a control flow. Enter its
name and press Enter to confirm editing.

Case Study
Draw an activity diagram of an ATM for withdrawing cash.

Solution