UML - Interaction Overview Diagram

What is Interaction Overview Diagram?

An interaction overview diagram is a type of activity diagram where the nodes represent interaction diagrams. These can include sequence, communication, interaction overview, and timing diagrams. Most of the notation used is the same as in activity diagrams, such as initial, final, decision, merge, fork, and join nodes.

Key Elements of Interaction Overview Diagram

The following are the two key elements of the interaction overview diagram:

1. Interaction Occurrence

Interaction occurrences refer to existing interaction diagrams. They are displayed as reference frames, with "ref" in the top-left corner, and the name of the referenced diagram shown in the center of the frame.

2. Interaction Element

Interaction elements are also representations of existing interaction diagrams in a rectangular frame, but they show the contents of the referenced diagram directly.

Interaction Diagram Example

The same controls from activity diagrams (fork, join, merge, etc.) can be applied to interaction overview diagrams, allowing control logic to be placed around lower-level diagrams. This allows for processes to be abstracted within interaction occurrences.

Advantages of Interaction Diagrams

Interaction diagrams can be applied in different scenarios to deliver specific information. They can:

• Model a system as a sequence of events arranged by time.
• Reverse-engineer or forward-engineer a system or process.
• Organize the structure of interactive events.
• Convey the behavior of messages and lifelines in a system.
• Identify connections between lifeline elements.

Useful Tools to Draw Interaction Diagrams

The following are the tools to draw an interaction diagram:

• Enterprise Architect
• Lucidchart
• Visual Paradigm
• io
• Microsoft Visio
• Creately
• Gliffy
• PlantUML
• Edraw Max
• SmartDraw