Every time I start a new architecture role, one of my first tasks is to hunt out a UML tool. I'm still constantly surprised at how little traction UML has within the software development industry, with few people using it and fewer people having access to a UML tool. As I type this I'm listening to Grady Booch's 4 part "podcast" series about software architecture and he just said that "a model is a simplification of reality". For me, this is exactly the reason I use UML - it allows me to present the architecture to other stakeholders in a simplified way.
I've been hearing a lot of good things about StarUML, but what's your UML tool of choice?
Simon is an independent consultant specializing in software architecture, and the author of Software Architecture for Developers (a developer-friendly guide to software architecture, technical leadership and the balance with agility). He’s also the creator of the C4 software architecture model and the founder of Structurizr, which is a collection of open source and commercial tooling to help software teams visualise, document and explore their software architecture.
You can find Simon on Twitter at @simonbrown ... see simonbrown.je for information about his speaking schedule, videos from past conferences and software architecture training.
That's funny, certainly within the company that I work for most people are using UML particularly the Architect community.
Here we use Rational Software Architect, which I find a pretty good product on the whole. One thing that I would like, would be the ability to sketch models quickly. Rational Software Architect seems to support this reasonably well, but is very slow to start up. I'll be interested to have a look at StarUML.
Does anyone have experiences of interoperability between UML tools?
Tom
I used to be a huge fan of TogetherJ (although that was a long time ago!). These days I've got to admit that I do most my UML in Visio (with mixed success).
I find that my target audience usually has limited UML experience (whatever their discipline) and so, in keeping with its lingua franca intent, anything other than basic UML is often counterproductive.
Code generation and reverse engineering aren't great either and I can't use it on my mac at home.
I, too, will investigate Enterprise Architect.
By preference, I use Enterprise Architect from Sparx.
However, if the client I'm working for is tight about tool costs, MagicDraw would be by next choice.
I've had dealings with Rose, XDE, et al, but wouldnt necessarily chose them.<p/>
I have been having trouble finding a preferred UML tool for my Mac... jury is still out on that one. <p/>