Re: does a software architect need UML skills?

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Arne Vajhøj <arne@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Arne Vajhøj <arne@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
UML is the standard.

As Radek says, according to who? It's widely used, but that's not quite
the same thing.

It is called a defacto standard.

I wouldn't say it's *sufficiently* commonly used to count as a de facto
standard. In particular, I think it's *talked about* more than it's
actually used.

In my experience, a lot of companies will say they use UML for all
their documentation - but don't really do so, and to little harm.

There may be reasons not to use the standard.

But now knowing the standard is a very poor reason.

If your organization happens to use UML extensively, that *might* be a
reason - although it's simple enough to learn UML when necessary.
>
If your organization doesn't use UML, or doesn't use it very much, why
should it be a job requirement?

Because an architect that does not know UML is complete out of
touch what is going on in the industry.

And that is a pretty bad characteristic for an architect.

I wouldn't claim to "know" UML. I know enough to understand other
people's diagrams, and I'm perfectly capable of communicating with
other people through ad hoc diagrams with enough UML-ness where
necessary.

Am I completely out of touch with the industry? Would you throw my CV
out because it doesn't list UML as one of my core skills?

Personally, I think it's most important that architects are able to
come up with appropriate solutions and communicate them effectively to
their teams and managers. The nature of that communications is
relatively unimportant, IMO.

--
Jon Skeet - <skeet@xxxxxxxxx>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too
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