Use a Collaboration Occurrence to apply a pattern defined by a Collaboration to a specific situation, in a Composite Structure diagram.

The following example uses an occurrence, NWServer, of the Collaboration Install, to define the installation process of a network scanner. This process can be defined by an interaction attached to the Collaboration. (See the Collaboration topic for a representation of the Install Collaboration.)

OMG UML Specification

The OMG UML specification (UML Superstructure Specification, v2.0, p. 6) states:

"A particular use of a collaboration to explain the relationships between the parts of a classifier or the properties of an operation. It may also be used to indicate how a collaboration represents a classifier or an operation. A collaboration occurrence indicates a set of roles and connectors that cooperate within the classifier or operation according to a given collaboration, indicated by the type of the collaboration occurrence. There may be multiple occurrences of a given collaboration within a classifier or operation, each involving a different set of roles and connectors. A given role or connector may be involved in multiple occurrences of the same or different collaborations."