[vegetablepotpie]

This is similar to the 4+1 views concept.

I’ve never seen modeling tools widely used. When it’s attempted it’s always a top-down initiative that always addresses management concerns, but always creates more risk for developers without generating value for them, and it never takes off outside of being a box on a process list to check off. Developers promptly stop using these tools as soon as their use is no longer enforced.

The long term destiny of models is that they will always diverge from the code, sometimes in ways that matter. In that situation, the best model of the code is the code it’s self because it’s a model that you can rely on. You can certainly update the diagrams, but that’s a priority call vs. what else you’re doing, and it doesn’t always win out over other tasks.

Some enterprising tool developers will make modeling tools that will generate code, therefore linking the diagrams and the model to the development of the code. When this is employed, it’s complex and it’s never a perfect implementation. Generated code can be buggy, or it may not do what you want. It may be a significant effort to make the models generate the code that is needed, and you may find your self further developing the code generation tools to generate the code you want. I’ve never seen this have a good benefit to cost ratio.