In a previous blog post we commented that one of the reasons of the low adoption of modeling practices among practitioners was the limitations of current CASE tools. In particular we emphasized the low usability of the tools, specially when compared with the pencil and paper/whiteboard option.

I’ve just found out another blog post that kind of expresses this same idea but in a more hilarious way. Don’t miss his offer of free UML special paper!

My recipe to beat the paper&pencil option is easy (to say, not to do!):

• Create tools that simplify the drawing of the models, e.g. allowing free-hand drawing of the models on a TabletPC. If we add (synchronous) collaborative modeling capabilities, this option could perfectly mimic the way teams typically use modeling in whiteboards for communication purposes.
• Add value to the modeling effort by offering valuable model-based services (e.g. quality checks, code-generation services,…). Obviously, these services only make sense if the models are complete and precise enough instead of simple sketches (but this is like the chicken and egg problem, if designers don’t have the services they may not be motivated to create detailed models, and the other way round).

Jordi Cabot

FNR Pearl Chair. Head of the Software Engineering RDI Unit at LIST. Affiliate Professor at University of Luxembourg.  More about me.