Pragmatic Software UML Design Tools

Collaboration graphs are the least-known but, when used properly, the most effective UML design artifacts. Their effectiveness arises from their ability to present the "moving parts" of a software design (as opposed to the more static picture presented by a class diagram).

collaGra's ModuleGrapher tool enables software professionals to easily generate collaboration graphs that encapsulate those parts of the software related to a particular use case or design pattern. Furthermore, the tool provides a capability to search existing graphs using keywords, problem report numbers, module names, any string included in the graphs, thereby enabling design reuse.

collaGra's ModuleGrapher tool is:

• Language-Independent - Thanks to powerful "grep" technology, works with any language (Java, C, C++, C#) that groups functions into modules and/or methods into classes. Even works on multi-language systems (e.g, JSP/Java, C/Java via JNI, C#/ASP).
  
• A Good Value - Effective, yet inexpensive alternative to more expensive UML design tools (Rational, embarcadero, even Visio).
  
• A Tool and Nothing but a Tool - By foregoing code-generation and round-trip engineering, the Module Grapher allows the engineer to focus on the design of the code. More...
  
• Specialized for Reverse Engineered diagrams - Although effective for designing systems from scratch, the Module Grapher tool is most useful for working with legacy code. And remember, the code you wrote yesterday is legacy code... More about collagra's legacy code maintenance process.
  
• A Design-Driven Task List (DDTL) Generator - A good design highlights what needs to be done to code a solution. The tool converts the design changes into a list of tasks that can be used by the engineer to track progress in implementing the solution. In addition, the tool can be used to log how much time is spent on each task; the engineer can use this time information for making better estimates of similar tasks in the future.
  

The ModuleGrapher tool is currently available as a single user tool, although the XML and HTML design artifacts that are produced can be easily shared with other team members. Future releases will include Eclipse plug-in and enterprise versions.

Interested in evaluating the beta version? Please contact collaGra.