Mindmapping as a Documentation Tool

Question

My team has recently begun using XMind to organize development projects. It seems to be a pretty powerful brainstorming software. I'm just wondering if other developers have employed similar techniques to aid in documenting software design.

Answer 1

Same here. I've been using XMind for my current project. I like it because it's quick since most actions can be performed by using keystrokes.

When using the "Task Complete" marker set, I find that it's an easy way for me to maintain a snapshot of the state of development. For instance, I have an XMind file for my current app, and in it is a sheet for unit tests. Each class has a node, under that are the nodes for methods to be tested, then possible parameter ranges, and so on. I update the completion status of each node as I make progress during development.

My manager has noticed that I use XMind, and he recently asked me to give a Lunch & Learn on it. I'm hoping that we can get our other developers on board and have the company purchase the full version for all of us.

Answer 2

We used MindNode for a bit - it's pretty slick. Recently though, we've switched to CrowdMap, since several of us have iPads and it handles collaboration a lot better.

As far as I'm concerned, there's no better way to organize thoughts.

We actually use mind maps for our product backlog. And it such a more natural way to do it than what we did before.

Answer 3

I like the idea but I can also think there is a danger in doing this, as my experience is that mindmaps are quite personal. So I imagine it can be hard for newcomers to grasp the whole picture as they wasn't part of developing the map (if you are thinking about having maps as the only documentation)

I am all for all kind of drawings that can show pieces relative connections to each others. Even simple lists that lists files and modules with a single sentence can in some cases help a lot (compared to just a zip/dir full of code)

Answer 4

I use XMind personally, for team reasons I saw problems:

• Inside XMind team collaboration + versioning was not practicable (multiple team members editing/comitting changes, intelligent merging). Though this could have been changed (I tried out the feature 1 year ago)...
• For other collaborations we use confluence wiki. It was annoying to export images from XMind and upload it to wiki all the time.

IMO a perfect mind-mapping tool would be wiki based with nice frontend (similar to XMind) + quick editing + history view.