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I know activity diagram is
than a flow chart.
But what is the reason I should use activity diagram rather than flow chart apart from those above points.
I'm just started UML. And this point is unclear for me. Can anyone explain to me? Thanks in advance.
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The main difference between activity diagram and flowchart is that an activity diagram is a UML behavior diagram that represents the workflow of stepwise activities of the system while a flowchart is a graphical diagram that represents the sequence of steps to solve a problem. UML stands for Unified Modeling Language.
Data flow diagram shows the flow of data between the different entities and datastores in a system while a flow chart shows the steps involved to carried out a task. In a sense, data flow diagram provides a very high level view of the system, while a flow chart is a lower level view (basically showing the algorithm).
Activity diagram is another important diagram in UML to describe the dynamic aspects of the system. Activity diagram is basically a flowchart to represent the flow from one activity to another activity. The activity can be described as an operation of the system.
Difference between a Use case diagram and an Activity diagram An activity diagram is used to model the workflow depicting conditions, constraints, sequential and concurrent activities. On the other hand, the purpose of a Use Case is to just depict the functionality i.e. what the system does and not how it is done.
An activity diagram is not simpler than a flow chart. A flow chart is a simpler (earlier) version of an Activity Diagram.
Flow charts were invented at least 20 years earlier and are commonly used by non-programmers to document workflows. Any business process where people have to make decisions can be described as a flow chart. So, for example, a clerk making decisions about how to file complicated information might have a flow chart on the wall.
Because a flow chart is a subset of an activity diagram, there's actually no decision to make. A flow chart naturally grows into an activity diagram if you need to add more complex descriptions.
Sparx have a good explanation of the range of things you can describe in an Activity Diagram
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