14.1. Agile Modeling and Lightweight UML Drawing
Some aims of agile modeling [Ambler02] are to reduce drawing overhead and model to understand and communicate , rather than to documentthough documenting is easy with digital photos. Try the simple agile modeling approach. Practices include using lots of whiteboards (ten in a room, not two) or special white plastic static cling sheets (that work like whiteboards) covering large wall areas, using markers, digital cameras, and printers to capture "UML as sketch"one of the three ways to apply UML [Fowler03].agile modeling p. 30three ways to apply UML p. 11 Agile modeling also includes
- Modeling with others .
- Creating several models in parallel.
For example, five minutes on a wall of interaction diagrams, then five minutes on a wall of related class diagrams.
How big is the area you'd like to draw in? With your eyes and hands? Fifteen by two meters or 50 by 40 cm. (more monitor size)? Most people prefer big. But cheap virtual reality UML tools don't exist, yet. The simple alternative is lots of white static cling sheets (or whiteboards), reflecting the XP agile principle: Do the simplest thing that could possibly work .More tips:
- It's easy to upload digital photos of wall drawings to an internal wiki (see www.twiki.org) that captures your project information.
- Popular brands of white plastic static cling sheets: