Astah - How wonderful you are!

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I started using JUDE in the early days of UML modelling and have continued using Astah until now. In the day and age of Agile development, emphasizing "communication over documentation", is UML (and related UML tools) still relevant?

I'll give a resounding YES! to the question. While we should do away with extensive documentation, we should still be able to communicate our intent in forms of architecture, design, workflow, processes, etc.

In the course of my work in an end-user environment, I use Astah extensively to communicate with development teams, users, vendors and even senior management. 

I find it's often a lot easier to use a tool like Astah to draw UML (or pseudo-UML) diagrams than pen-and-paper (or even napkins!). For instance, I can easily move things around, redraw and append/ update the diagram using the tool but not with paper.

Some examples of diagrams I'd used in the course of work are below. I used Astah for the following:

  1. Share my thought process, concepts and linkages using Mindmaps (see Pros & Cons Mindmap)
  2. Design Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) Topic Hierarchy using Mindmap (see Topic Hierarchy)
  3. Depict in a UML Class diagram how the ERP and CRM synchronizes data (see ERP-CRM Entity Sync)
  4. Share system-to-system Integration Architecture (including Events, Web and API) in UML Class diagram (see Integration Architecture)
  5. Share flow/ sequence design using UML Sequence diagram (see Sequence Diagram)
  6. Share high-level block diagrams using UML Class diagrams with non-IT folks (see CRM Blocks)
  7. Share high-level UML Class diagrams for Enterprise Application Portfolio and Integration Architecture (see High-level AS-IS)
If you:
  • are reasonably adept at UML
  • prefer a lightweight & cross-platform UML tool over using pen-and-paper
  • enjoy communicating your intent, architecture, design without extensive documentation
You should give Astah a try here!



1. Pros and Cons Mindmap



2. Topic Hierarchy






3. ERP-CRM Entity Sync




4. Integration Architecture




5. Sequence Diagram




6. CRM Blocks



7. High-Level AS-IS







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