[canadian_tired]

Sure. Let me clarify first: The craft I refer to is the ability to create clear, detailed diagrams that not only document a system (like a layer 3 diagram), but also to express a series of ideas or concepts that a group of people is trying to wrap their head around. Effective use color, metaphor, and just enough text. These people obviously are not just artists...they need to understand what they draw. This is rare skill. Pictures can sell ideas, gain consensus, and move things ahead faster than a dozen emails and conf calls. Especially with Management. You won't get the attention of management with a 20 page dissertation...much less change their mind. I know, I have tried. In one case, we were trying to convince an army of execs to invest (substantially) in a large re-write. We had explained in detail, why it was needed. In the end it was a single diagram that sold our idea. We showed them how ugly the code base was with a cyclic dependency diagram. That hit them square in the eyes. We got the funding after that.

These people are hard to find...but you can (as I have) try to emulate them. I can suggest some books...I started with Edward Tufte's. Beautiful diagrams...and why they are beautiful. You can also look into the various "Napkin Books" from Dan Roam.

When I find a particularly amazing diagram, I keep a copy of it for reference. It helps me structure ideas and how I will communicate them to my leadership or my team. You can, with care, put an awful lot of data on a single page.

Again, make a lot of diagrams. If a concept, workflow, procedure, etc moves from unknown to known (mechanism by which this happens is not important) , draw the picture and send it out. If it never gets used again, at least you practiced the drawing and people know you can do it. Develop a style. A color palette. Certain styles of arrows. The list goes on.

Tooling: I love Visio. Damn, it's a fun tool. There are a few web-based tools... Omnigraffle, Lucidchart... not as good. At least for me. You can bang stuff out fast in Powerpoint, too. I keep a big pile of templates that I have massed over the years. Never used photoshop...not even once. Although, I keep inkscape and gimp around if I have to muck with actual images...but I really try to avoid that.

[mnsc]

> Edward Tufte's. Beautiful diagrams

Did you mean _Beautiful Evidence_?

I also think diagram skills are impressive but almost every time I try to get my understanding into a single page diagram I just gets lost along the way and the resulting diagram lacks just One Thing to make it really illustrative but I can't pin it down.

[canadian_tired]

My bad. What I should have said was "Edward Tufte's books. They contain beautiful diagrams". LOL...Didn't know about "Beautiful Evidence" until you mentioned it.

I know exactly what you are feeling trying to get that One Thing. It's what separates the good stuff from the great. I don't try to show everything on one diagram... even if it fits contextually. If you force people to have to think too much when they try to unpack your diagram, they lose interest. Draw, edit, adjust. After many years, I have a few "general starting points" in my head, and go from there. I still need to edit a lot...but I get there faster these days.

[Pokepokalypse]

That all resonates strongly with me.

I've had two employers where this skill was highly valued. (I even had a boss at one, who did his diagrams in effing MS EXCEL - not pretty, but often simple and effective). Most people wouldn't think of using Powerpoint, but in fact, as you say, it's a particularly effective tool. At least for relatively simple ideas.

Then I've had a couple of employers where absolutely NOBODY gave a crap about diagrams AT ALL. (as in, nobody ever did them, and everybody was constantly confused about what we were even doing). Any diagrams I encountered were halfhearted attempts and incomplete, and almost always out of date by at least a year. I tried to fill that gap but it just wasn't in the culture there.

I'm at a new place now that seems to have a better culture and I'm hopeful.

[ldarcyftw]

Any suggestions for great diagramm site/catalog (like dribbble for designs)?