Software engineers typically design their projects by using UML class diagrams. UML stands for Unified Modeling Language. It is a set of standards for models of object-oriented designs.
A UML class diagram is a picture that shows the classes of your projects and their relationships. Your UML class diagrams should have three levels of detail:
- A diagram that shows only the names of the classes and the relationships (IS-A, HAS-A) between them
- Additional detail: the fields and methods of each class
- Additional detail: the types of the fields, methods and method parameters
Here is an example of a UML class diagram for a game called HiLo.
Class diagrams are a tool to help you design. Use them that way.