The Agile Modeling (AM) Method

Network Diagrams: An Agile Introduction

Network diagrams, an example of which is depicted in Figure 1, are commonly used to depict hardware nodes as well as the connections between them. Network diagrams are arguably a high-level form of UML deployment diagram with extensive use of visual stereotypes.
Figure 1. Network diagram for the university system.

Network diagrams are often drawn using software-based drawing tools, Figure 1 was drawn using Microsoft Visio, although there is nothing stopping you from using simpler tools such as whiteboards. Hand-drawn network diagrams are often used as the starting point for either a clean network diagram created with a drawing tool or a more detailed UML deployment diagram.

The scope of a network diagram can be either a single application, a family of applications, or even your entire enterprise. An enterprise network diagram is often used as the starting point, when available, for either an application-level network diagram or UML deployment diagram. A combination of a network diagram and installation script is often used as an alternative to a detailed UML deployment diagram.

Source

This artifact description is excerpted from Chapter 10 of The Object Primer 3rd Edition: Agile Model Driven Development with UML 2.

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