An activity diagram is a UML behavior diagram that shows the flow of actions within a process, use case, or system.
It presents actions in their logical order. Moreover, it shows decisions, repeated actions, and parallel paths. Decision nodes show alternative flows. In addition, forks and joins show concurrent actions and their synchronization.
Swimlanes assign actions to roles, actors, or system components. Furthermore, object nodes can show the data that actions receive or produce.
Teams use activity diagrams to describe business processes and system behavior. For example, they can model a purchase process or a login procedure. However, an activity diagram focuses mainly on control flow. In contrast, a data flow diagram focuses on the movement of data.
Activity diagrams help stakeholders understand complex behavior, responsibilities, and dependencies.
« Back to Glossary Index