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Which UML diagram types are in most demand?

2015/06/07 Leave a comment
  1. From a recent spot check of over 500 job postings on Indeed.com that mention both “UML” and “diagram”, the following picture emerges:
  2. There is clearly a Big 4 of UML diagram types, and they are  – in order of frequency –
    1. sequence,
    2. use-case,
    3. activity and
    4. (the only structural diagram type that “counts”) class diagram.
  3. UML Diagram Type Count of type
    activity 19.33%
    class 15.33%
    communication 6.00%
    component 2.67%
    interaction 1.33%
    network-architecture 1.33%
    object 2.00%
    sequence 23.33%
    state 8.00%
    timing 0.67%
    use-case 20.00%
    Grand Total 100.00%
  4. It seems you could in practice cover “80%’ of UML with these four diagram types. Even state and communication  (collaboration) diagrams are an already very distant 5th and 6th (but get you up to a coverage of about 95%).
  5. Notably, the majority of UML diagram types – at least in this sample set – do not figure at all:
Count of type Diagram
0 Behavioral state machine
0 Collaboration use
0 Composite structure
0 Deployment
0 Information flow
0 Interaction overview
0 Internal structure
0 Manifestation
0 Model
0 Package
0 Profile
0 Protocol state machine

Note: The vast majority of mentions did not need any, but I attempted some translations of the raw data on indeed.com:

indeed.com counted as
action activity
collaboration (1) communication (2)
data flow information flow
domain model class diagram
object models object
state charts state machine
process flow 1 not counted
swim lane sequence
prototypes 1 not counted
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