Gliffy

Very handy tool for software architects

Opmerkingen: I have been using Gliffy Diagram for several years and I have been thoroughly impressed with the cool set of tools and their deployment model. When it comes to putting together software architecture diagrams I do not even think of any other tools these days. Excellent work team. Thank you.

Pluspunten:

Ability to be used as an extension within the other document curation tools like Chalk and all within the browser. Nicely organized set of really good and relevant pre-defined components that really helps quickly drawing an idea into a diagram.

Minpunten:

At times, the components become a little bit shaky that they do not behave exactly as they should. Some times memory consumptions becomes a little too heavy for a browser to handle especially for large diagrams.

Great balance of features

Opmerkingen: When many of my colleagues are struggling with PowerPoint or trying to remember how to use Visio, I quickly throw together a process diagram that I can share with engineering or other stakeholders. It's quick and easy to use and solves my problems.

Pluspunten:

Chrome app so it's light weight and easy to install. Good balance of features on the free version. Doesn't try to do too much in terms of icons and options - it's the perfect tool if you want to do a process diagram and UML document.

Minpunten:

Could benefit from more options with connectors (arrows or direction of flow). The text placement on the diagram elements are not always ideal and can cut off other parts of the diagram. Better file management.

Simple and quick, Confluence integration, lots of other integrations, but limited

Opmerkingen: Gliffy is easier to learn than Visio, fairly intuitive and the common functions you need are close to hand (on right click or contextual menu button close to selected item). Was quicker to draw a medium complexity diagram with boxes and connectors than Visio (or Powerpoint), and the resulting diagram looked good. Good range of available symbols and easy to add your own stencils from a SVG-based artwork (and JPG importing was easy too).
Small native file format, and it is text based (JSON) so it is searchable (and hackable if needed).
But there are limitations, which means it for the most complex or structured diagrams it can't replace Visio, OmniGraffle, or a Architecture tool (and would not replace Autocad or similar either) I can see this may work better on tablets/touch screens than Visio No bulleted text/numbered lists
Connectors won't "hoop" over lines, and you can't add additional bends in connectors (there are workarounds--import "hoop" shape or use a UML shape to fake a hoop with multiple lines)
Can't have text less than 9px in size.
Limited import and export options. But the product is continuously developing.

Pluspunten:

Quick Free versions available Lots of integrations: Chrome, Google Drive, Google Docs Addin, MS word Addin, Confluence. Allows sharing of diagrams to multiple collaborators. Not very expensive

Minpunten:

Free version will make your diagrams public after 15 days. You have to pay desperately for each integration: e.g. a paid for confluence license won't equate Visio import has to be paid for. non-standard file format (JSON instead of GraphML)

Good only if you use Confluence

Pluspunten:

This was easy to use and made explaining tech workflows and processes easier.

Minpunten:

We actually don't use Gliffy anymore because while it was great with Confluence, we needed it to be more versatile and integrate with other applications, so we switched to Lucidchart.

Excellent application for creating process flowcharts

Pluspunten:

Gliffy is easy to use and has all basic features needed to create flowcharts. I also like how simple and friendly the user interface looks. The drag and drop feature is so easy to use that anyone can actually use this application without difficulty.

Minpunten:

Though there's a free version, I don't think that's adequate for my needs. That means paying a monthly fee to use the paid version. And it's not really cheap, especially for individual users.