AI Is Transforming How We Use Software Diagrams

Everywhere we look, artificial intelligence (AI) tools are changing the game for developers. These tools often bring promise for less manual work, greater efficiency, and more time for the strategic tasks we value most.

Figure 1: A simple sequence diagram showing the interaction between a developer, a codebase, and an AI system

The potential of AI is especially apparent in one often-maligned part of the development process: diagramming. 

When it comes to software development, diagrams play a vital role. They aid developers in comprehending complex systems, conveying ideas, and recording their progress - but actually creating these diagrams? That’s a different story. This process is often seen as a time thief that takes developers away from more strategic work, especially in fast-moving agile environments.

That’s where AI comes in. Developers can automate the creation and maintenance of their visuals using artificial intelligence. While the use of AI tools doesn’t come without challenges, there’s exciting potential for the future. Incorporating domain knowledge using AI models such as ChatGPT will only enhance the helpfulness of diagrams as development tools.

Improving the diagram creation process with AI isn’t just about making life easier for developers. Everyone will benefit as we move towards an AI-driven diagramming process; developers will save time and effort, helping them create better software for their end users.

Let’s take a deep dive into the potential of diagramming AI:

Figure 2: A simple class diagram showing the relationship between different classes in a codebase

AI Is Making It Easier To Generate and Maintain Diagrams

Diagrams give the architecture of the system a visual representation, making it simpler to comprehend how each part interacts. Among the various types of charts, Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams have gained acceptance for their capacity to illustrate different aspects of a system, ranging from its static structure to its dynamic behavior.

However, creating these diagrams can take a lot of time. It requires a deep understanding of the system, attention to detail, and frequent revisions to keep the charts in sync with the evolving codebase. Agile environments cause development to move quickly — meaning diagrams must be frequently tweaked and updated.

Diagrams are often viewed as an extra step in the development process that detracts from coding. They may go unnoticed or receive less attention than they deserve.

Here’s how AI could help:

Capitalizing on the Power of Automation

AI can automate the process of generating diagrams from codebases. AI tools have the ability to grasp a system's structure and relationships by analyzing the code and creating charts. By doing this, developers save time and can focus on making sure the diagrams are precise and consistent with the codebase.

The diagrams may also be updated in line with any changes found in the source by AI, ensuring that they always depict the system as it is. This can be especially useful in Agile environments where the codebase is regularly modified. We’ll discuss the benefits of automated diagram generation later on.

Layering Subject Matter Expertise

Diagrams could benefit from a layer of subject area expertise added by sophisticated AI models such as ChatGPT. By utilizing its extensive knowledge, ChatGPT may give more context, make suggestions for enhancements, and even create some of the diagrams themselves. Providing insights and offers, in addition to visual representations of the code, could increase the speed of creation and the usefulness of the charts.

Figure 3: AI analyzing a codebase and updating a diagram

Challenges When Implementing AI Diagramming Tools

Most AI tools have their limitations. Diagramming AI is no different. AI functionality is great for increasing efficiency, but we always need a “human in the loop” to ensure we’re getting the most out of our efforts. Here’s where AI currently falls short:

Dealing With Complex Codebases

It can be difficult for AI algorithms to comprehend and translate a complex codebase into a readable diagram. 

The quality of diagrams produced by AI also depends on the codebase upon which they are built. Auto-generated charts may be less helpful or even deceptive if the codebase is poorly organized or lacks adequate documentation — especially when we’re talking about a more complex codebase.

Striking a Balance Between Comprehensiveness and Complexity

Developers must ensure that their AI-generated diagrams communicate important information without being overly complicated, and thus unreadable. It might be easy to use AI to generate a simple diagram — but that won’t provide real understanding to the reader. If you feed too much information to the AI, it might generate something that’s more confusing than helpful.

A Lack of Context or Human Understanding

Diagram design can be automated with AI, although more is needed to eliminate human input requirements. Diagrams are more than just a picture of the code; they frequently include human understanding and context, which an AI might not be able to capture. For instance, a developer might draw a diagram to explain a specific system feature or convey a particular concept. AI-generated charts might not capture these subtleties.

The Future of Automated Diagram Generation Is Here

These three hurdles — highly complex codebases, complexity vs. brevity, and instilling human intuition into AI — won’t be solved overnight.

However, advancements in AI algorithms are bringing us to a reality where diagram generation can be nearly fully automated. Instead of manual generation, humans only need to provide oversight and expertise to complete the diagramming process. 

Automated diagram generation has the potential to be one of the most groundbreaking advancements in AI's application to software development. AI algorithms can analyze codebases and automatically create diagrams that show the structure and relationships between the different sections. This simplifies the visualization of complex software architectures and helps improve speed and quality.

The base of this work is an AI algorithm's ability to parse and analyze source code. This involves finding the code’s components, such as classes, methods, and functions. From there, the AI figures out the relationships between these components: inheritance, dependencies, or other relations.

Using natural language processing (NLP), the AI can also understand comments and documentation within the code for a more holistic view of the functionality. Over time, this will improve the generated diagrams.

Using this existing information, AI can use pattern recognition algorithms to identify recurring design patterns and architectural structures. This helps in structuring the information in the diagrams so that it aligns with existing conventions, making them easier to read.

Finally, the AI decides what diagram type(s) are suitable for visualizing these patterns, which is especially useful within graph-based visuals such as class or sequence diagrams.

Automating the diagramming process this way would free up valuable developer time and transform the raw effort of making diagrams into reviewing and adjusting the generated diagrams. Generated diagrams can highlight weaknesses that need to be addressed with updated code. 

This type of automation will give a reliable updated representation of the codebase, decreasing errors and improving consistency in documentation. This AI-driven approach is also highly scalable, allowing developers to handle larger and more complex codebases. This will be an invaluable tool for a quick understanding of the structure and functionality of the system, especially for new team members.

AI + Humans = Better Software

Imagine what developers can unlock when they’re spending less time and effort creating diagrams, but getting more consistent, high-quality, and updated results!

The potential for AI in software diagramming is bright. AI will undoubtedly become a more significant component of our software development toolkit as it develops.

As we continue to research and create in this area: the convergence of AI and software diagramming is not just about improving diagrams; it's also about increasing our comprehension of complicated systems, our communication, and ultimately, our ability to design better software.

The AI-driven diagramming future is great for developers. But it will also benefit the end users of the software we’re designing every single day.