JeAndre Williams wrote:
> 
> I am at the point of documenting message flow between interfaces to later be
> passed on to create XML code for an enterprise application integration
> project to integrate systems. Any alternatives to using the Activity
> Diagrams? Developers are looking for sequence diagrams.

Ah, that's a little different from the original formulation of the
question, which was about using sequence diagrams to document alternate
flows in a use case.

I think the relationship between the two questions is coverage:  you
need to make enough sequence diagrams to cover the different flows in
the use case.  I advise using an activity diagram to systematically
discover the flows in the use case (alternate paths in the activity
diagram), and then making a sequence diagram for each of the required
flows.

Although sequence diagrams do have standards for showing branching and
iteration, significant use of these confuses the basic picture of
messages passing between objects over time, and reduces the clarity of
the diagram.  The sequence diagrams that you produce this way may not
relate well to real-world sequences that can actually happen, and they
don't help your confidence in coverage of all of the use case flows.

Unless there is more for you to tell, I can't see why the developers
wouldn't be able to use multiple, simpler sequence diagrams instead of a
single complicated one.

For this new set of questions, I can't think of a cute analogy like
climbing down off a duck, but try this:  Instead of using a hammer, use
hammer and tongs.  Use multiple hammer strokes (sequence diagrams), and
turn the work as needed using the tongs (activity diagram).  I can work
the anvil in there, too, but for that I charge extra.

-Eric
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