Discussion: The outcome of making both sides of a Dependency Link look like a single, continuous curvature as it passes through the Dependum is an enhanced presentation and improvement of the overall readability of the model. In some situations, such as when the model is very large and complex and the drawing space is limited, the modeler might need to have some flexibility by relaxing this guideline a bit. While it is allowed in such situations to break the rule, it is recommended to employ such guidelines as much as possible, especially in academic work and published articles.

Some tools or platforms such as the “istar_stencil” used in Microsoft Visio, require the modeler to manually adjust and arrange both sides of the Dependency Links to be drawn in a single, continuous curvature. Adjusting the snap and glue can help the user to adjust the link. Other tools such as “OME3”, takes care of this issue automatically.