This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz
by Jared Richardson.
Original Post: The Death of UML?
Feed Title: Jared's Weblog
Feed URL: http://www.jaredrichardson.net/blog/index.rss
Feed Description: Jared's weblog.
The web site was created after the launch of the book "Ship It!" and discusses issues from Continuous Integration to web hosting providers.
A few weeks ago I was at the Desert Southwest Software Symposium in Phoenix and a question came up in the architecture "birds of a feather" session.
"How do you record your product's architecture and design?"
Neil Ford answered this question perfectly. He said he used NML. Neil's Markup Language.
NML is same thing that I and co-panelist Brian Sletten use, as well as countless others, but Neil named it so perfectly. :)
These steps are complicated, so pay close attention.
When doing your project's design, or while creating it's architecture, get everyone in the room in front of a whiteboard.
Draw pictures until everyone understands the problem and the solution. If someone doesn't understand a particular symbol or drawing, draw another symbol or picture.
When you're done, transcribe the picture with a drawing program. Use Visio, Dia (or Dia for Windows, or even just a digital camera. Just get them off the board and archive it. Put it in source code management. On a Wiki. Put them somewhere.
That's it. The great secret of NML? There are no set symbols, nothing to memorize, and nothing to look up.
Go read about UML if you like... it'll give you some good ideas. But don't use it religiously. For that matter, don't use any tool religiously. That's not Agile.
Previous Topic
