Hey :)

what tools do you use to design your software architecture?

at the moment I am confronted with a mix of word, one note, draw.io, visio and balsamiq.

I have the feeling that this is a bit off because it's too many tools so I just wanted to ask.

I have been using mostly draw.io and plantuml. Also pen and paper xD.

I use Visio for most things, but only because work pays for the license.

Otherwise I would fall back to draw.io

Paper and basically the db design step (with comments) and writing the models classds with comments is enough for me to explain the system architecture

draw.io is fine for many things, currently i have to use enterprise architect (can't say the UX is great)

📌

pencil+paper for brainstorming/modeling, draw.io for making it docs-ready

pen and paper for the initial stuff,
any markdown enabled editor (in my case its atom with a markdown plugin) for writing down architecture and structure of projects. Sometimes draw.io for digitalizing my drawings from paper, sometimes gimp, to draw them a bit more freely.

Excel file (no, I am not joking)

I list all the params and method requirements for the classes and the coding progress in the table.

Then on a new sheet, I draw the class relations.

It's just convenient for me to have all the info in one file.

Since Visio online is included in company office365 I use it (offline visio still needs extra license). I moved from draw.io to visio

won’t lie - i just bang them out on paper and take a photo for later. somehow it works

thank you all for your answers :)

@Burgundxyz ok, but how about software architecture?

@electrineer pen and paper. no need to complicate it