Powerpoint vs UML

I think I am a big fan of textual UML after I learnt it from thoughtworks techradar. I doubted it after my recent experience.

In the past 2 months I spent long periods of time to think of how to make my Powerpoint slides pass my boss Lim Chee Kiam's standard. I thought deeply about that. One moment, I asked myself why Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson, and James Rumbaugh didn’t come out a diagram which cater to dynamic(behaviour) and static (structure) diagrams, then I realized it will be a mess if those two things are put toghere. That’s why most of modeling framework/languages separate them. The natural next question will be how to do it better?

In the system design phase of interview processes of big companies for software engineers and NALSD for SRE, they emphasize how to consisely put structure and behaviour into a diagram. The only way to do that in my opinion will be like my boss’s standard, put all important points into a diagram drew using powerpoint or excalidraw etc to emphasize those key points.

The experience is valuable even my boss help me to draw some diagrams. I compared my way and my boss’s way. I reflected on what I did and what I missed comparing to my boss’s work. It deepened my understanding of software architecture, how to present ideas in the way the target audiences easily understand.

Boss, Lim Chee Kiam, thanks!