"Nobody draws UML any more" is half true: few teams still produce wall-sized diagrams before writing code, yet class, sequence and state diagrams live on in pull requests, design documents and architecture reviews. UML 2.5.1 is still the current specification, and OMG's Foundation exam checks, in 90 questions, whether you can read and build those diagrams correctly.

The myth survives because it confuses two things: UML as a heavyweight design phase, which really did fade, and UML as a shared sketching vocabulary, which did not. This article sorts the two apart for developers, business analysts and architects. You will see where UML still turns up at work, which diagrams repay the effort, when another notation is the better choice, and what OMG's Foundation-level credential, the first of three OCUP 2 exams, does and does not prove. Exam figures come from OMG's Foundation exam information sheet and its certification page, read in October 2026.