Unified Modeling Language (UML)

General Information

Technologies must be operated and maintained in accordance with Federal and Department security and privacy policies and guidelines. More information on the proper use of the TRM can be found on the TRM Proper Use Tab/Section.

Website:	Go to site
Description:	Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a standardized modeling language used in software engineering. UML includes a set of graphic notation techniques to create visual models of software systems. UML combines techniques from data, business, object and component modeling. UML is a de facto standard and was created and is maintained by the Object Management Group (OMG). Beginning with UML 2.0, the UML Specification was split into two complementary specifications: Infrastructure and Superstructure: UML Infrastructure specification defines the foundational language constructs required for UML and UML Superstructure, which defines the user level constructs required for UML.
Technology/Standard Usage Requirements:	Users must ensure their use of this technology/standard is consistent with VA policies and standards, including, but not limited to, VA Handbooks 6102 and 6500; VA Directives 6004, 6513, and 6517; and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards, including Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). Users must ensure sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. Prior to use of this technology, users should check with their supervisor, Information Security Officer (ISO), Facility Chief Information Officer (CIO), or local Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) representative to ensure that all actions are consistent with current VA policies and procedures prior to implementation.
Section 508 Information:
Decision:	View Decisions

Decision Source:	TRM Mgmt Group
Decision Process:	One-VA TRM v24.1
Decision Date:	01/23/2024 at 01:30:44 UTC
Introduced By:	TRM Request
Standards Body:	OMG

Vendor Release Information

The Vendor Release table provides the known releases for the TRM Industry Standard, obtained from the vendor (or from the release source).

Version	Release Date	Vendor End of Life Date	Vendor Desupport Date
2.3	04/15/2010
2.4.x	08/06/2011
2.5.x	06/30/2015

Current Decision Matrix (01/22/2024)

Users must ensure their use of this technology/standard is consistent with VA policies and standards, including, but not limited to, VA Handbooks 6102 and 6500; VA Directives 6004, 6513, and 6517; and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards, including Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). Users must ensure sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. Prior to use of this technology, users should check with their supervisor, Information Security Officer (ISO), Facility Chief Information Officer (CIO), or local Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) representative to ensure that all actions are consistent with current VA policies and procedures prior to implementation.

The VA Decision Matrix displays the current and future VA IT position regarding different releases of a TRM entry. These decisions are based upon the best information available as of the most current date. The consumer of this information has the responsibility to consult the organizations responsible for the desktop, testing, and/or production environments to ensure that the target version of the technology will be supported. Any major.minor version that is not listed in the VA Decision Matrix is considered unapproved for use.

Legend:

White	Approved: The technology/standard has been approved for use.
Yellow	Approved w/Constraints: The technology/standard can be used within the specified constraints located below the decision matrix in the footnote[1] and on the General tab.
Gray	Unapproved: This technology or standard can be used only if a POA&M review is conducted and signed by the Authorizing Official Designated Representative (AODR) as designated by the Authorizing Official (AO) or designee and based upon a recommendation from the POA&M Compliance Enforcement, has been granted to the project team or organization that wishes to use the technology.
Orange	Divest: VA has decided to divest itself on the use of the technology/standard. As a result, all projects currently utilizing the technology/standard must plan to eliminate their use of the technology/standard. Additional information on when the entry is projected to become unapproved may be found on the Decision tab for the specific entry.
Black	Prohibited: The technology/standard is not (currently) permitted to be used under any circumstances.
Blue	Planning/Evaluation Constraint:The period of time this technology is currently being evaluated, reviewed, and tested in controlled environments. Use of this technology is strictly controlled and not available for use within the general population. If a customer would like to use this technology, please work with your local or Regional OI&T office and contact the appropriate evaluation office displayed in the notes below the decision matrix. The Local or Regional OI&T office should submit an inquiry to the TRM if they require further assistance or if the evaluating office is not listed in the notes below.

Release/Version Information:

VA decisions for specific versions may include a ‘.x’ wildcard, which denotes a decision that pertains to a range of multiple versions.

For example, a technology approved with a decision for 7.x would cover any version of 7.(Anything) - 7.(Anything). However, a 7.4.x decision would cover any version of 7.4.(Anything), but would not cover any version of 7.5.x or 7.6.x on the TRM.

VA decisions for specific versions may include ‘+’ symbols; which denotes that the decision for the version specified also includes versions greater than what is specified but is not to exceed or affect previous decimal places.

For example, a technology approved with a decision for 12.6.4+ would cover any version that is greater than 12.6.4, but would not exceed the .6 decimal ie: 12.6.401 is ok, 12.6.5 is ok, 12.6.9 is ok, however 12.7.0 or 13.0 is not.

<Past

CY2023

CY2024

CY2025

Future>

Release

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

2.3

Unapproved

2.4.x

Unapproved

2.5.x

Approved w/Constraints
[4]

Approved w/Constraints
[5]

Decision Constraints


[1]	Technology must remain patched and operated in accordance with Federal and Department security policies and guidelines in order to mitigate known and future security vulnerabilities.

[2]	Veterans Affairs (VA) users must ensure VA sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed by the local ISO (Information Security Officer) to ensure compliance with VA Handbook 6500.

[3]	Veterans Affairs (VA) users must ensure VA sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed by the local ISO (Information Security Officer) to ensure compliance with VA Handbook 6500.

[4]	Veterans Affairs (VA) users must ensure VA sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed by the local ISSO (Information System Security Officer) to ensure compliance with VA Handbook 6500.

[5]	Veterans Affairs (VA) users must ensure VA sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed by the local ISSO (Information System Security Officer) to ensure compliance with both VA Handbook 6500 and VA Directive 6500.

Note:

At the time of writing, version 2.5.1 is the most recent version released. It was released on 12/31/2017.

References

The following reference(s) are associated with this entry:
Type	Name	Source	Description
There are no references identified for this entry.

Standard Components

Note: This list may not be complete. No component, listed or unlisted, may be used outside of the technology in which it is released. The usage decision for a component is found in the Decision and Decision Constraints.
Source	Name	Description
No components have been identified for this entry.

VA Categories View the VA Categorization Framework

Domain Area	Category	Customer Guidance	Category Locked By ELT Date
Application Technology Development Tools	Analysis, Design, and Modeling Tools

Technologies/Standards Relationships

Implemented By/Verified With:

Microsoft Visio - (implemented by)

Comparable Standards:

No comparable entries have been identified.

Associated Standards:

Extensible Markup Language (XML) Metadata Interchange (XMI)

General Analysis

Adoption Benefits

This standard has extensive documentation. In addition to books that have been published on the use of the specification, courses on UML are offered by computer science departments in many accredited colleges and universities.
UML is program language independent. UML models may be implemented in any language. This increases the likelihood that during the implementation phase a project can leverage existing VA skillsets.
UML defines a metamodel (logical model) that suppresses implementation details. This enables project teams to focus on understanding the problem domain or business process in project planning and design phases.
UML provides for extensibility of a model by incorporating other modeling languages and allowing new model layers to be defined for problem domains. For example, a subset of Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is included in UML to address system development model domains. As a result, UML modeling utilities vary in their conformance to the UML specification. This may impact the portability of UML project designs to different modeling technologies. To address conformance issues created by the UML extension definition, the UML specification includes conformance and constraint notation.
At the time of writing, no National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) vulnerabilities had been reported and no VA Cyber Security Operations Center (CSOC) bulletins had been issued for the latest versions of this standard.

Adoption Risks

The potential exists to store Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI) and/or VA Sensitive data and proper security standards must be followed in these cases.
There has been no recent development activity on this standard.

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VA Technical Reference Model v 24.7

General Information

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Current Decision Matrix (01/22/2024)

Decision Constraints

References

Standard Components

VA Categories View the VA Categorization Framework

Technologies/Standards Relationships

Implemented By/Verified With:

Comparable Standards:

Associated Standards:

General Analysis

Adoption Benefits

Adoption Risks

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