

Ask HN: Software Design and documentation – what do you use? - eddyparkinson

When you create software, what do you use to design, document and visualize. What do you use to help with designing software.<p>e.g. Use cases, Pseudo code, Gantt chats, PERT charts, DFD, decision trees, decision tables
(Your answers maybe used to help teach students)<p>Also, why? When have they proved valuable?
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dennybritz
I barely use anything sophisticated. When designing a complex system I usually
start with a simple document that lists the use cases (this is the most
important), system components, and some implementation details. There are a
couple of architectural models I've tried using (such as
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%2B1_architectural_view_model](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%2B1_architectural_view_model)),
but I haven't found them very useful in practice.

Instead of over-designing and engineering from the very beginning, I prefer a
more iterative approach. Admit to yourself that the first time you
design/implement a system you will most likely get a lot of things wrong. Get
a proof of concept out there, and try to learn from it. The second time you
design that system you will probably try to incorporate everything you know
and are prone to overengineering and feature bloat
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-
system_effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-system_effect)). So, be
careful.

Check out "The Mythical Man-Month". It's a timeliness book on software
engineering.

~~~
eddyparkinson
>Second-system effect Thanks, never seen that one before.

I wish there was better rule for deciding what feature to put in. Maybe for
every added feature i should have "a use case" . ... Um, an "add feature
rule", to create a good rule, maybe I need some use cases.

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kromodor
Design: paper; mockup app; .psd; html; whiteboard Docs: github wiki; word docs
(for smaller pieces)

There are too many tools. One can drown in tools and still not do anything.

We try to keep as simple as possible, until it is not enough. Then we escalate
the tool, but only IF experience proves we work less efficient without it.

