Executable Modeling with UML. A Vision or a Nightmare?

Extreme Programming is the most prominent new, light-weight (or agile) methods, defined to contrast the current heavy-weight and partially overloaded object-oriented methods. It focuses on the core issues of software technology. One of its principles is not to rely on diagrams to document a system. In this paper, we examine what properties a modeling language like UML must have in order to support the Extreme Programming approach effectively. In particular, we discuss how such a diagrammatic programming language must look like to replace a textual programming language and what benefits and problems such an approach may bring.