Selecting the Right tool for UML
Hi all,
I am in making a decision of selecting a UML tool
for better class design, sequential diagrams and so forth.
with your all experience kindly suggest me which one would be better and more useful.
(Visual Studio do provide UML tool but it is not stable currently. At the same time since it is a Microsoft product so they will make their tool look and feel rich + enhance the functionality in the coming years)
Following are the choices - (or you can suggest one)
1) Rational Rose,
2) Visual Paradigm
3) Enterprise Architect (sparxsystems.com.au)
4) Visual Studio Provided UML
5) Visio
As keeping current market tools in mind and as a designer of the system
I have to make a decision on which tool i should go with.
What I have a personal experience is with Rational, Visio and Studio. But I am not sure with other tools?
Kindly let me know and share your experiences.
Thanks and Regards
Paresh.
Hi Paresh,
Here are my thought about the tool you've written down :
1. Rational Rose - excellent tool, although I'm not sure about IBM's intention to support VS 2005, in case you need it for .net 2.0. One problem with this tool - VERY expensive (thousands of dollars)
2. Visual Paradigm - good tool, but lacks the option for code generation and synchronization (as far as I know) which is a must for designers.
3. Enterprise Architect - Only good things to say - excellent tool, supports VS 2005 (generation and synchronization), and not that expensive as Rational's tools (much less expensive)
4. Visual Studio provided UML - There is not such thing. The class designer that comes with VS 2005 is not UML based ! and there is no separation between the designer and the code (the diagram is a representation of the code, so there's no "real" design prior to the coding)
5. Visio - the latest version of visio is based on UML 1.1, not 2.0, that's the first problem. Visio's code generator knows only how to generate, but it cannot synchronize the code.
If I had a choice - I'd choose sparx EA.
Best of luck,
Ido.
I've used Rational, EA, Visio
Ration is good integrated to IDE, but has no support with VS 2005 as was mentioned. And besides, drawing diagrams a bit buggy
Enterprise Architect are good for the big projects, when several team participate in modelling, coz it has source control support. Good drawing, good help and the latest support of the UML versions
Visio is like office's part, simplier than EA.
I use Visio for small projects where no need in cross team collaborations, and EA in big serious projects with several teams and number of members
Hi all,
The above answers were quite good and satisfying. I am trying to evaluate the EA to test UML, Use Cases, Business Requirement capturing, DB Modeling etc.
I have seen Together from Borland also, Do you guys have any experience with using "Together" ? I mean how is the integration with VSTS. can you put all documentation in TFS etc.
pls. share your experience as well.
Thanks for all,
Paresh.
