This post originated from an RSS feed registered with .NET Buzz
by Udi Dahan.
Original Post: UML 2 = Visual Shock?
Feed Title: Udi Dahan - The Software Simplist
Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/UdiDahan-TheSoftwareSimplist
Feed Description: I am a software simplist. I make this beast of architecting, analysing, designing, developing, testing, managing, deploying software systems simple.
This blog is about how I do it.
Arnon and I are working together on the architecture of a C4ISR project these days. Anyway, between us Arnon is the UML expert while I pretty much draw whatever I feel will get my point across - though both of us are squarely in the UML as a sketch camp. So, I'd finished drawing up the design of the client software in my CASE tool of choice - the whiteboard; using a set of small class and sequence diagrams. Arnon polished it up and put it into a UML 2 communication diagram (I think that's what they're called). He actually was able to get everything into a single diagram. I remember my first reaction when I saw that diagram. It was something like "Wow, that looks complicated. I remember it being a lot simpler."
It turns out that there is a technical term for what I experienced. I ran into it on the Beyond Bullets blog and its called Visual Shock. Apparently its not just me - many have experienced this same feeling.
So, even though it may be more maintainable to have a single diagram, it probably doesn't do much in way of communicatability (is that a word?). For me, diagrams are all about communicating my ideas visually. If 2 small class diagrams, and 3-4 small sequence diagrams together paint the picture, then maybe we don't need a single unified view.
Previous Topic
