The  object-oriented  modeling language  UML  offers various  notations  for all
phases  of  application  development.  The user  is  left  alone,  however, when
applying UML in up-to-date application development involving distribution,  data
management, and  component-oriented mechanisms.  Moreover, various  shortcomings
have  been  encountered,  most  notably  w.r.t.  refinement  of  model  elements
throughout the development life cycle and employment of interaction diagrams  to
formalize use cases. The paper will shed  some light on how these issues may  be
handled with UML.