Handy tools for Solution Architects

There are many tools which can be used by the solution architects which can be very handy. Some of the tools are very useful in reducing your time to present or convey across your point of view.

Its essential to have good tools, but its also essential that tools to be used the right way

– Wallace D Wattles

The tools which I present here are more for aiding visual presentation

• Mindmap – Mindmeister, Freemind, FreePlane
  • Can be used for representing categorization of tree
  • Can be used to depict a story via relationship
  • Can be used to represent Sitemaps, Hierarchy
  • Can be used to represent Service / capability decomposition
  • Can be used for providing conceptual understanding
• Enterprise Architecture – Archimate
  • Handy to provided different point of view for different stakeholders
  • Would be useful for collating the enterprise artifacts in appropriate manner
  • Helpful in bringing up business, technology and people perspective in a visual manner
• Drawing tools – Draw.io
  • Can be very helpful in the drawing diagrams
  • Has lot of templates which can be reused
  • Simple yet very power tool
  • One file can help you to collate multiple pages with in
  • Available in Microsoft Store for free.
  • You can also use this tool online for simplified access
  • Very handy for quick diagramming and clarifications.