How do you file away your planning/design material?

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Chris Corbyn
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How do you file away your planning/design material?

Post by Chris Corbyn »

I've just started using UML in my design/planning stages tonight. It beats the hell outta my old method of scribbling nonsense on scrap paper :P

When you've finished with this stuff, what do you do with it?? Do you print it off and keep a hard copy in a nicely organised folder, store it on the computer or just forget it or what? I'll be using this in part of a seriously long term ongoing project. I'm using umbrello to create the diagrams and the exporting them as PNG for my boss to look over.
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MrPotatoes
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Post by MrPotatoes »

i've never used UML. how do you use it? i wanted to know to put on my resume

and it might make some of my documents better as well
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

I'm still learning but after much searching around and only finding vague tutorials on it these documents seem to be very useful. I'm using these as a guide.

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/rational/uml/
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MrPotatoes
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Post by MrPotatoes »

yeah, i wanted a quick start guide. thing that i've learned from anythin in the workplace is that you don't need to master <span style='color:blue' title='I&#39;m naughty, are you naughty?'>smurf</span>. if it comes up then you learn that so i don't need to master it.

oh, i guess i should have asked this, what is UML? what does it do or rather what is it's output like?
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

MrPotatoes wrote:yeah, i wanted a quick start guide. thing that i've learned from anythin in the workplace is that you don't need to master <span style='color:blue' title='I'm naughty, are you naughty?'>smurf</span>. if it comes up then you learn that so i don't need to master it.

oh, i guess i should have asked this, what is UML? what does it do or rather what is it's output like?
UML == Unified Modelling Language

It's basically a way to summarise and graphically represent the structure of parts of your application. Class interactions and dependancies etc can be shown using class diagrams. User interactions acan be shown on Use Case diagrams.... and I haven't got much further than that in my studying yet... apart from creating such diagrams.

EDIT | I'm not sure how you'd use it in procedural systems. It's really suited/made for OO systems.
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Re: How do you file away your planning/design material?

Post by Christopher »

d11wtq wrote:When you've finished with this stuff, what do you do with it?? Do you print it off and keep a hard copy in a nicely organised folder, store it on the computer or just forget it or what? I'll be using this in part of a seriously long term ongoing project. I'm using umbrello to create the diagrams and the exporting them as PNG for my boss to look over.
Well deleting the files would just be extra work so leave them. But be sure you indicate whether they are design phase documents or documentation. If they are not correct and do not reflect the actual design then you have a choice on creating updated copies to add to any documentation you are creating.

I usually just draw them on a whiteboard and then erase them once the code stablizes.
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Chris Corbyn
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Re: How do you file away your planning/design material?

Post by Chris Corbyn »

arborint wrote:
d11wtq wrote:When you've finished with this stuff, what do you do with it?? Do you print it off and keep a hard copy in a nicely organised folder, store it on the computer or just forget it or what? I'll be using this in part of a seriously long term ongoing project. I'm using umbrello to create the diagrams and the exporting them as PNG for my boss to look over.
Well deleting the files would just be extra work so leave them. But be sure you indicate whether they are design phase documents or documentation. If they are not correct and do not reflect the actual design then you have a choice on creating updated copies to add to any documentation you are creating.

I usually just draw them on a whiteboard and then erase them once the code stablizes.
Thanks. You just reminded me of something I wanted to ask. Obviously the whole development process cycles between design, implementation and testing. That means that the design is going to (possibly) change slightly after some testing. Is it really important to keep your UML up to date or is this only really for getting out the first implementation in a well thought out way?

I think I'll suggest to my boss that we create a repository on the server where we can archive this stuff :)
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Post by shiznatix »

i start by sending myself and email. when i get an idea i write it on scrap paper then one the idea is a solid though i reply to my original email to myself. also, every day that i work on a project i zip it all up and email that at the end of the day in the same email.

this really helps me because i can see my chain of thought, go back and be like 'you where being a idiot' and change something (i know just where to find it now) and whatever. also i can work on it anywhere I want (office, desktop comp, laptop -- if i ever get internet :P) or if i wanna show a friend at the bar to get some ideas from him then its right there.

of course this is a highly personalized thing and only works when i am doing a solo project. also its bad since it requires google to not delete my email randomly which is touchy since i am relying on a third party to no lose my data.

when im done i just collect my emails to myself, put it together in a comprehensable(sp?) way and now i have all the info on the entire process i would ever need.
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

shiznatix wrote:i start by sending myself and email. when i get an idea i write it on scrap paper then one the idea is a solid though i reply to my original email to myself. also, every day that i work on a project i zip it all up and email that at the end of the day in the same email.
:lol: I think the UML approach may go down better with the boss (and on my CV :P)
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Re: How do you file away your planning/design material?

Post by alvinphp »

d11wtq wrote: You just reminded me of something I wanted to ask. Obviously the whole development process cycles between design, implementation and testing. That means that the design is going to (possibly) change slightly after some testing. Is it really important to keep your UML up to date or is this only really for getting out the first implementation in a well thought out way?
I first make the changes in UML to see what work is required. Doing this has saved me many potential headaches as I see things I would of missed if I just started coding. As for where I store my project files I keep them in a directory i name _project in the applications folder (that I do not upload to the production server). This directory is also on version control so I can go back to older versions of my documentation if needed.
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