What is used in software design?

Question

Software design

How effective is it to use UML in large projects?

Answer 1

Do not bother, in large projects the uncles themselves will tell you what and how it is customary to use them.

Answer 2

I have not seen a better tool than Word, but the main problem is a competent technical writer on the other side of the monitor. This is an expert worth its weight in gold.

Answer 3

So, let's think with our heads, and not like the rest - pounce on the toolkit. UML is a tool for formalizing accumulated knowledge, it is used quite rarely because few people know it and for the most part it is redundant. Again, this is documentation.
What is used for design? Surprisingly, pen and paper have not gone out of fashion and are still the most practical today. Also whiteboarding and other tools for brainstorming. The simpler and more flexible the tool, the more efficient it is for the design process. Everything else is documentation.
Documentation uses different tools that exist for completely different things. A lot of documentation is done in MS Office or Confluence, protocols are written in Swagger, diagrams are drawn in Visio, Lucidchart, Draw.io, .... It all depends on the tools chosen in the team, company rules and a million other factors.