Question

We have a very large app which has been designed exclusively by a single developer who is a bit reluctant to give too much information out on how it has been put together.

We were thinking about using a UML tool for educational purposes so others can start to learn and take ownership of the code but with the the large code base it may be difficult to work out how it all works.

My questions are:

1. How would you go about educating others on a complex piece of framework?
2. Will UML benefit?
3. What UML tools are there for .net apps?
4. Can UML tools auto-generate sequence diagrams and at least this will give more information on how the objects interact?

Any information provided will be greatly appreciated.

JD

Answer 1

1. No single answer to this. Diagrams can help with overall structure. Writing Unit Tests can be very instructive in understanding how it works, and provides an added bonus for subsequent evolution. And finally, just read the code.
2. It can do. Class Diagrams can be very useful in understanding the static structure. Specifically visualising the relationships among classes – for me they’re the “secret sauce”. Sequence Diagrams and Activity Diagrams are useful for understanding behaviour.
3. Visual Studio has UML tools built in (Ultimate edition?) which can auto-generate class and sequence diagrams.
4. See above.

Overall though there’s no magic bullet. Getting your head around a large body of code you’re not familiar with will take time. I’d look at options to “removing the reluctance” on the part of the developer who knows it. Getting him (her) to run a series of tutorial sessions where (s)he goes through each element of the framework in turn would be hugely beneficial. Crucially, (s)he will be able to explain why certain things are as they are – which can be extremely valuable. No tool will give you that.

hth.