The Association shape and other related shapes are used in class diagrams and use case diagrams. See the descriptions below.
Note: Creating and editing UML diagrams on Visio for the web requires a Visio Plan 1 or Visio Plan 2 license, which is purchased separately from Microsoft 365. For more information, contact your Microsoft 365 admin. If your admin has turned on "self-service purchasing," you can buy a license for Visio yourself. For more details, see Self-service purchase FAQ.
For Class diagrams
|
Shape |
Description |
|---|---|
|
|
Represents a general relationship between instances of the classes. |
|
|
Represents a relationship that flows in only one direction between instances of the classes. |
For Use Case diagrams
|
Shape |
Description |
|---|---|
|
|
Represents the participation of an actor in a use case. |
|
|
Indicates that one use case has a dependency on another. |
|
|
Indicates that a use case is a specific way to achieve goals of the general use case. The hollow arrow head points toward the more general element. The more specific use case is fully consistent with the general use case and includes additional information. |
|
|
Shows how a use case is broken into smaller steps. |
|
|
Shows that one use case adds functionality to another. |