Coding the Architecture - uml tag

You don't need a UML tool

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:27:06 GMT

When tasked with the job of coming up with an architecture and design for a new software system, one of the first questions people ask is about which tool they should use. Such discussions usually focus around the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and whether their organisation has any licenses for some of the more well-known UML tools.

Read the full essay...

Is UML on the way out?

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:32:00 GMT

One of the presenters at QCon (I think it was John Davies) asked the audience whether they used UML 2.0 and only a couple of people raised their hands. I wasn't one of them - I briefly looked at UML 2.0 a while back but I didn't feel compelled enough to use it. This got me thinking, how widespread is the use of UML nowadays?

From my own perspective, here's where I tend to use UML within the context of a bespoke software project.

Use case diagram : A high level view of the system functionality and scope.
Activity diagrams : A high level view of the business process that is being realised by the software. This is useful for showing parallelism.
Class and sequence diagrams : Information about architectural patterns and blueprints (e.g. describing a common implementation pattern). These are typically used by the development team.
Component and deployment diagrams : Details about deployable components and how instances of those components will be/are deployed on pieces of hardware.

As I've mentioned before, I tend to go with a just enough approach to the software architecture document, but I do definitely find that UML is useful because you don't have to think about the notation. Having said that, I do use Visio-style block diagrams for representing things like the logical and physical/infrastructure architecture (you can see a simplified version of such a diagram on page 3 in this presentation). I do this for two reasons. First of all, I don't think that UML provides an easy to understand notation for this sort of thing and second, these high-level architecture diagrams are typically distributed to a wider audience, some of who aren't technical and don't understand UML.

So then, is UML on the way out? I'd be interested in your thoughts on the following.

What notation do you use for your architecture and design diagrams?
Is a standard diagramming notation important to you?
How does your audience influence how you create diagrams?
If you do use UML, what's your UML tool of choice?

What's your UML tool of choice?

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:02:00 GMT

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?

Sun Java Studio Enterprise

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 10:09:10 GMT

In addition to a good IDE, one of an architect's key tools is a UML modeling tool. However, if you're in the market for something more sophisticated than a whiteboard, choosing the right tool can be complex and expensive. Unlike IDEs, UML modeling tools haven't really become commoditized and it's still fairly common to pay several thousand dollars for a single license. However, there are cheaper and free alternatives, one of which is Sun Java Studio Enterprise (free Sun Developer Network login required).

In Free UML Tools, Charles Beckham says :

I look around and I see Enterprise UML tools costing from $1,000.00 USD to $4,000USD...so it is glee that I point you to the free Enterprise UML tools provided by Sun Microsystems. To be fair I see many "limited versions or trial downloads at no cost" but what I am talking about here is full "Award Winning Enterprise UML Tools" for no cost with no strings attached.

I've watched the video demonstrating the UML features and the tool does look pretty enticing. Reverse engineering, full roundtrip, support for all major UML diagrams and pattern driven modeling are all shown. No doubt we'll be downloading and taking this (and other) tools for a test-drive sometime in the future. If you've used Java Studio Enterprise, what are your experiences?