Visio UML as Sketch

When reading the latest posts about XP == DATT by Paul Gielens, I noticed him mentioning UML as Sketch. And suddenly this new Visio 12 feature was in my mind, that I had just recently blogged about.

As Fowler says it, you can draw your sketches on a white board, but also in a light weight drawing tool. I’m not sure if Visio can be seen as a light weight drawing to, but let me clarify. I know when mentioning Visio to RUP and UML fanatics, they want to set both you and Visio on fire, or just chuckle at you. Haven’t you heard of this great toolset Rational created? Yeah, I reply, and haven’t you heard of user friendly interfaces? Man do I despise that toolset.

The current Visio isn’t that user friendly either thought, when you look at all the property screens with a dozen tab-pages that come up when you draw a new class in your diagram. But that’s where currently my most favorite stencils come into place. Just throw on your UML 2.0 shapes and sketch in those properties and methods, if you want.

I’m not sure how Visio 12 handles those dreaded property screens, but after thinking about this sketching technique, I sure do like (or will like) the new ability to add new shapes by just clicking these arrows I mentioned.