Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with uml

Learning how to model the processes of a medium-sized business

yoz420 — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:41:24 -0800

A friend has recently been offered a position that will involve modelling the company processes in her company. She has a good knowledge of the business but needs to learn to formalize this knowledge into proper business process models. Where can she start a crash course on the formal approaches to modelling and creating diagrams of the processes used in this company of about 100 employees? There is a lot of information on the web about this, but it's difficult to separate out the noise from good information. I am looking for recommendations of insightful websites or good introductory books that you have found useful in the past, as well as any advice based on your own experience of doing this sort of thing.

Aspiring Business Analyst

jasondigitized — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 07:24:00 -0800

Help me become a great business analyst. I am slowly taking on more responsibilities as a business analyst and I am completely winging it. Does anyone out there gather requirements and do business modeling? Is that what a business analyst really does? I would like to here more about what makes a good business analyst. Can anyone recommend some good books, websites, techniques, and tools for jedi BA's? Should I learn more about UML? Interviewing techniques? Sharpen my general business understanding? Buy a fancy Monte Blanc pen? Is this job more about relationships than technology? Real life anecdotes appreciated.

What's the best way to create a large, complex, flexible UML diagram?

grumblebee — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:54:45 -0800

I need to spec out a huge, complex application in UML. I'm looking for good tools/techniques to do this in a fluid situation, where there are a ton of classes and new ones will be added all the time. My team is going to write a gargantuan program. We need to spec it, and I'm expecting we'll spend two or three weeks on the spec, before writing a line of code. It's vital that the finished spec be clear, rational, utilitarian and scalable. I've gotten to that point before, on other projects, but never on one this large. And my way of getting there is to make many drafts of the spec.

During draft stages, I continually refine the spec by adding new classes, removing redundant ones, etc. So the entire UML chart needs to be revised maybe 50 times before it's done.

The only UML tools I've used are graphical-UI ones, where you have to draw little boxes and drag connectors between them. But the thought of doing that on this project makes me queasy. It would mean continually dragging tons of boxes around to make space for new ones.

Here's what I'd like:

-- a way to create the graph via XML or something similar. The XML could be fed into an application that would spit out a diagram.

-- the XML/outline/whatever is easy to modify, in terms of adding new classes, relationships, etc.

-- when done, we could PRINT the whole diagram as a giant chart which we could hang on the wall. I guess it would have to be on many sheets of paper that we'd tape together. But we'd really like to be able to view the entire model at once.

Does such an app exist? If not, I'm very open to analog approaches. Is there a good method of doing something like this with tons of index cards (one for each class) tacked to the wall or something?

I'm sure other teams have faced this problem. How have the solved it?

We're Mac and Linux based, but if the best solution is PC-only, we could go that way via parallels.

If it matters (and I'm not sure why it would), this will be a web app coded in Actionscript 3.0.

UML Certification

birdlips — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 13:02:22 -0800

Which UML Certification is the best choice? IBM OOAD/UML or OMG Certification? I am a developer who has been using UML for several years and I want to get certified. I have been preparing for certification and hope to achieve this by then end of summer. There are several different companies that offer UML certification. I am stuck between two specifically.

IBMs OOAD/UML ($175) : http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/tests/edu486.shtml

OMG Certification ($200 / exam): http://www.omg.org/uml-certification/exam_info.htm

I was wondering if anyone has an opinion on which one would be better? Which one has a stronger industry appeal? If there are any managers or analysts that have an opinion to which one is favored, please feel free to comment.

The monetary difference is not a big issue; I prefer to go the best route to cost savings.

Thanks!

and it begins...

devilsbrigade — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 16:35:59 -0800

DevFilter: For those of you who have started large-scale software development projects, what worked during the initial design & framework stages? Did UML->C++ work for the class framework? Was UML remotely worth it (my first instinct is no, but I've never done a project this big before). Other ideas? Things you'd do differently next time?

Ways to visualize web site outline?

jasondigitized — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 06:39:23 -0800

I have been assigned as Project Manager for a project to design our company website. In order to understand how it will be navigated and ensure that all the project stakeholders understand its high-level structure, we will need to create a sitemap / site outline. Can anyone recommend any software or methodology ( sticky-notes on a wall? ) for doing this? I have tried using Visio, and it just seems too cumbersome.