Still Skeptical About UML? Let Me Change Your Mind

I was recently at a conference in Portugal, where I had the chance to talk with renowned software development professionals, university lecturers, and instructors. When I mentioned my UML course, one of the veteran software professionals raised his eyebrows and asked, “Is UML still a thing?”

I said, “What do you mean? How else could you describe a complex software system?” His answer surprised me: “Well, we simply write everything down. Or, even better, we just discuss and agree on design decisions.”

I still can’t imagine how that would work in the long run. What happens when people leave the team–or the company–and others have to maintain the software?

Anyway, here’s an image that says more than a thousand words.

I hope it illustrates my point clearly: UML can be a valuable, effective tool when we don’t get bogged down in its details. Combined with concise textual descriptions, it can be a fantastic, unbeatable way to create design documents that developers will actually read and rely on.

If you want to learn more about UML and modern software design, check out my course, “UML and Object-Oriented Design Foundations.

I distilled the practical bits of UML based on what proved to be the most useful in my daily work. People seem to appreciate my take, so you might want to take a look, too.