Capture Software Design Notes - Quick Diagramming and simple written notes

Question

As a software developer, I often need to quickly capture notes about business rule changes or I might want to quickly lay out a diagram.

What software tools do you use and personally recommend for such a task?

Right now I capture written notes or diagram on paper. And sometimes I though written notes in a Word document. But quick diagrams in Word (or even Visio) are not practical.

I know some folks are going to stay "pen and paper" and like I said, this is a current method I use. I'm looking for new alternatives. It'd be nice to centralize and maybe even archive my design notes/tasks...

To note, I'm not looking for a distributed or complex system like OnTime. Though a wonderful product, that is much overkill for what I'm looking for.

Answer 1

It really is hard to beat pen and paper, because it is infinitely flexible and makes no assumptions about what you will be storing. By definition, any software tool that isn't precisely as easy as this will necessarily be more work and harder to use. That is why you are experiencing such consternation with getting Word and Visio to bend to your will.

That said, there are some feasible alternatives. The most obvious one is to get a tablet PC, which is essentially the digital version of pen and paper. You should also check out yuml.me, a nifty text-to-UML diagram generator.

Answer 2

I use paper and pen and then if they are not acted on and I need to save them they go into a document. I also sometimes make a text file and add it to a project/source control.

If I write stuff I want to save on a whiteboard I take a picture of it.

Answer 3

Pen and paper/whiteboard.
Used to scan them at times.
These days I take a picture from my mobile phone.
Gets down to quite small JPG/PNG files. Works.