Real-Time Collaborative Software Modeling Using UML with Rational Software Architect

Modeling is commonly used in the process of software development. UML (Unified Modeling Language) is a standard software modeling language and has been widely adopted for software analysis and design. As software systems are getting larger and more complex nowadays, software modeling using UML often requires collective and collaborative efforts from multiple software designers. In contrast, most of today´s software modeling applications are still single-user-oriented and do not offer much help to coordinate interaction and collaboration among team members. In this paper, we will present the technical challenges and solutions in providing advanced collaboration capabilities and transparently integrating them into mainstream software modeling applications to effectively facilitate collaboration among geographically dispersed software designers. The work has been tested and demonstrated by the design of CoRSA (Collaborative Rational Software Architect) - an experimental collaborative software modeling prototype based on RSA, one of the most widely used commercial software modeling applications in the market