Chapter 5 Building Dynamic Diagrams

Organization Units

An organization unit is an optional element that allows you to graphically highlight which organization unit is responsible for which activity. It can represent a company, a system, a service, an organization, a user or a role.

An organization unit can be created in the following diagrams:

Activity Diagram

The organization unit is equivalent to the swimlane in UML. In the OOM, the organization unit is the tangible element and the swimlane is the symbol that represents the organization unit.

Verify that the Organization Unit Swimlane check box is selected from the Tools→Display Preferences→General command. The graphical symbol of the organization unit will then be a swimlane. It can contain all the symbols of an activity diagram: activities, object states, transitions, etc. as shown below:

You can also display swimlane symbols by right clicking in the activity diagram and select Enable Swimlane Mode from the contextual menu, or conversely by right clicking in the activity diagram and select Disable Swimlane Mode from the contextual menu.

You can create internal and external shortcuts of organization unit.

Using models from version 9
If you use a model that has been created in version 9, use the Tools→Display Preferences→General command and select the Organization Unit Swimlane check box to display the organization units.