Active4 months ago
If you are going to use UML (the most widely-used diagrams) for creating your software architecture, Visual Paradigm Community Edition is a totally free solution (For Personal and non-Commercial). May 23, 2017 Personally, I don’t use many tools. One place I worked at used microsoft visio I think. I use Flowchart Maker & Online Diagram Software for architecture diagrams and I just take notes and draw diagrams to design the software I am building. SmartDraw is a popular flowchart creation software program with intuitive design and great ease of use, making it a good choice for novices. Apart from its slight learning curve, this tool also offer strong diagramming and organizational features, along with great graphic features and decent text options. Home design software is one of the most popular tools used by both interior designers and architects alike. Room and home design software helps you plan and remodel a room or even construct additions to your home through an easy to use computer program. Programs such as these are usually referred to as computer-aided design (CAD) software.
What tools do you use to speed up documenting application design.Namely, creating wireframes, flowcharts. What other methods do you find essential .
Is the general consensus that use cases are vital, or is a good functional spec document easier and quicker
StuartStuart4,97566 gold badges2727 silver badges3131 bronze badges
closed as off-topic by meagar♦May 15 at 13:54
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18 Answers
ArgoUML has been my friend for many years when it comes to drawing UML. ArgoUML is a tool and you're asking about both tools and the processes used (i.e. 'which artifacts do you create with the tools). We generally stick to user stories (agile project) and do not make 'classical' use cases and use case documents.
krosenvoldkrosenvoldEmbedded Software Architecture Design Tools
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I use Balsamiq Mockups for UI design and Visual Paradigm Aigilian for modelling - it allows to nicely go from high-level business processes to granular requirements and UML modelling... And it's quite cheap.
Michał ChaniewskiMichał Chaniewski3,95111 gold badge1414 silver badges1515 bronze badges
Sparx EA is big bang for the buck. Multi language support with roundtripping and team support. Been using it for three years without complaint.
I've used Rational Rose, Poseidon, ArgoUML, and several free Eclipse plugins. Rational's too big and slow, Poseidon was great (free version imprints semi-nude greek god of the sea on your diagrams), and Argo always gave me problems and didn't diagram what I need. I never found a good 'free' Eclipse plugin... was always waiting for that magic bullet.
johnwalker00johnwalker00
The pencil add-on for Firefox is pretty good for simple diagrams and GUI sketches.
And if you don't like it as a FF add-on, you can download a standalone version for Linux or windows.
EvanEvan14.5k88 gold badges3737 silver badges4848 bronze badges
I use Freemind to handle all the ideas i get when im brainstorming a the solution of a problem. And then by using the icons and colors on each node i can prioritize them. I really like that freeware tool.
Allan SimonsenAllan Simonsen89833 gold badges1616 silver badges3030 bronze badges
Mostly Dia (http://projects.gnome.org/dia/), whiteboard and for quick 'drawings' pen and paper.
TiagoTiago
Paper and pencil, and whiteboard and dry erase marker. Later I transfer it to Visio once I've worked out the major problems. Unfortunately it doesn't meet your requirement of free, sorry.
jasonhjasonh15.4k1111 gold badges5454 silver badges5858 bronze badges
I use a four-section whiteboard with embedded printer. That way, I can both do design privately at my desk or in a group of peers, and it lets me print out my ramblings for later on.
I've never found an application that gives me all those capabilities (although a 6 foot by 4 foot monitor would be neat, I don't think my employer will pony up the cash for it).
Sometimes the best technological solution is no technology at all (although I will be checking out the other answers to see if the tools have improved since the last time I looked - I'm pretty cynical however so I approach it with a certain pessimism).
paxdiabloSoftware Architecture Drawing Tool
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OpenOffice.org's 'Draw' does a decent job for creating flowcharts and similar diagrams, as long as you don't expect it to know (and enforce) the syntax and semantics of a given diagram type.
Erich KitzmuellerErich Kitzmueller30.9k44 gold badges6565 silver badges9191 bronze badges
dia, graphviz (dot), pen and paper, and my own mind.
All of these are free as in speech. Dia and graphviz are also free as in beer.
ThomasThomas2,63422 gold badges2323 silver badges2929 bronze badges
Gliffy (wireframing, flowcharting) has a free basic version but all documents produced this way are public, therefore not very usable I guess.
Sorin ComanescuSorin Comanescu3,73422 gold badges2323 silver badges3232 bronze badges
I usually find myself using MS Excel for drawing flowcharts rather than Visio because of its ease of use, and the juxtaposition of spreadsheet calculations with the flowchart itself. I write the pseudocode right next to the flowchart in MS Excel, and that makes reviewing much easier.
Muhammad FarhanMuhammad Farhan12922 gold badges33 silver badges1212 bronze badges
Skectching paper (3' by 2') and a sharpie and pencil. I like the large surface, but find it easier to work on a horizontal surface (rather than using a whiteboard.)
I've actually modeled some flowcharts for the boss in MS Publisher. The drawing tools are good enough, and it converts to pdf. Not free, but may be on your workstation already.
I don't always do use cases, or even user stories, but will always brainstorm how a new app will be used, and by whom, before planning. That helps me better defend my specs.
CrenshawCrenshaw
Community♦
BoydskiBoydski1,54311 gold badge3535 silver badges4848 bronze badges
Visio mostly, drawboard/pen&paper for drafts. I write my final thoughts on a word processor and publish them for other team members to comment. presentations are also important to deliver your concept to a broad audience (important in large companies where many teams might be affected by your design/new system, and you want to get feedback from everyone).
I will be checking out the recommendations here though, maybe I'll find some new useful tool.
AmiAmi85011 gold badge1010 silver badges2121 bronze badges
Thats online tool from Autosketch also may be usefull for modeling aand designing.http://draw.labs.autodesk.com/ADDraw/draw.html
dead_OTMOPO3dead_OTMOPO3
I am currently using OmniGraffle for both sketching and documentation (combined with paper and pencil of course). It is quite elegant, fast and makes it easy to produce good looking documentation.
The major drawback is that it is not connected to the code at all, which makes refactoring a bit harder, but that goes for many of the tools right? It not free either, although quite cheap for a tool with it's maturity and strength.
Sebastian GanslandtSebastian Ganslandt76722 gold badges1010 silver badges2626 bronze badges
I find Umbrello (bumped into it while bopping around KDE on Fedora) to be a nice tool, although I don't have much to compare it to.
ElsporkoElsporko