What's a good high level diagramming program?

Question

I'm looking for a simple way to make high level designs of the structure of a program I'm working on. Something along the lines of class dependencies and connections, but I'm using it for planning, not for analysis, so it needs to be some sort of drawing app rather than a code analysis tool. I've been using Openoffice Draw but it's somewhat frustrating. Is there something better, preferably free?

Answer 1

Hi Debio, You can still use one of the free UML diagramming tools to produce the diagrams with, even if you go no further than that. A good free option is StarUML, found here. that will provide you with a clean, standards compliant (and thus widely comprehensible) method for diagramming how your systems are going to be deployed and how they will work together. If your not familiar with UML, there are a few good quick ref guides out there that will get you up and running quickly.

HTH

Answer 2

What platform do you run? For Macintosh I recommend using OmniGraffle.

Answer 3

I used ArgoUML in the past which is a free solution for making UML diagrams.

Nowadays I use Omnigraffle or Enterprise Architect depending on the circumstances.

You might also check out online offerings like Gliffy, they are becoming quite good and allow collaboration.