Models, sketches and everything in between
Video and slides from Software Architect 2014
Eoin Woods (co-author of the Software Systems Architecture book) and I presented a session at the Software Architect 2014 conference titled Models, sketches and everything in between, where we discussed the differences between diagrams and models for capturing and communicating the software architecture of a system.
Just the mention of the word "modelling" brings back horrible memories of analysis paralysis for many software developers. And, in their haste to adopt agile approaches, we’ve seen countless software teams who have thrown out the modelling baby with the process bathwater. In extreme cases, this has led to the creation of software systems that really are the stereotypical "big ball of mud". In this session, Simon and Eoin will discuss models, sketches and everything in between, providing you with some real world advice on how even a little modelling can help you avoid chaos.
The video and slides are both available. After a short overview of our (often differing!) opinions, we answered the following questions.
- Modelling - Why Bother?
- Modelling and Agility?
- How to Do It?
- UML - Is It Worth the Hassle?
- Modelling in the Large vs the Small
It was a very fun session to do and I'd recommend taking a look if you're interested in describing/communicating the software architecture of your system. Enjoy!
About the author
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.