"Ram�n Jim�nez" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > IBM Rational Rose Enterprise edition for internal use so I thought that > > using UML would be the best way ahead. Would people agree? > > I would agree that it is, but not using tools. Pencil and paper is the > way to go, especially in the beginning. Nothing can beat a whiteboard even if your using it on your own. > I just feel that modern tools are not up to it yet Well, tools such as Rational's Rose or Borland's Together *are* but it takes a very long and steep learning curve to use them to full potential and that usually only pays off in very large and complex projects. Also the developments on Model Driven Architectures (MDA) look very promising and if you want to go on that road you'll have to use UML tools. > ... and jump to code straight ahead. Which > is not any good actually. There are degrees of jumping ;-) and a well prepared jump is something that the Agile movement is suggesting as long as you take into account *that* you are jumping and be prepared to revise your designs on a regular and controlled way. > > the data is extremely complex with nested, overlapping, and discontinuous > > heirarchies of objects, often in many-many relationships. Sounds interesting ;-) > "Analysis Patterns" by Martin Fowler Like all books by Martin Fowler this is indeed a very useful book also his website is always interesting (www.martinfowler.com) Another one that might give you some handles is Agile Database Techniques by Scott Ambler specially if you come from a relational background. One thing you have to take into account is that you have to be aware what you are modeling just data or a complete application. Because Cache is both a database *and* an application server mixing the two is a very common error that people make. At least in the beginning try to seperate your data and application designs. HTH Herman
