
Most of the objects are alive throughout the interaction.

First, there is the object lifeline, which is a vertical dashed line that represents the existence of an object over a period of time. Sequence diagram has two features that distinguish them from collaboration diagrams. This gives the user the detail about the flow of control over time. The messages dispatched by the objects are arranged from top to bottom along the y-axis. Generally, the object which initiates the interaction is placed on the left and the next important object to its right and so on. In a sequence diagram, the objects that participate in the interaction are arranged at the top along the x-axis.

The sequence diagram emphasizes on the time ordering of messages. Like all other diagrams, interaction diagrams may contain notes and constraints.Ī sequence diagram is one of the two interaction diagrams. They are: a name which identifies the diagram and the graphical contents which are a projection into the model. Interaction diagrams share the properties which are common to all the diagrams in UML. Both sequence diagrams and collaboration diagrams are isomorphic diagrams.

Collaboration diagram is another interaction diagram in which the focus is on the structural organization of the objects.
