ICONIX

Abstract

This text is derived from the ICONIX entry in the online Wikipedia:

The ICONIX Process is a minimalist, streamlined approach to Use Case driven UML modeling that uses a core subset of UML diagrams and techniques to provide thorough coverage of object-oriented analysis and design. Its main activity is robustness analysis, a method for bridging the gap between analysis and design. Robustness analysis reduces the ambiguity in use case descriptions, by ensuring that they are written in the context of an accompanying domain model. This process makes the use cases much easier to design, test and estimate.

The ICONIX Process was developed by Doug Rosenberg; for more information on ICONIX, refer to ICONIX Software Engineering Inc.

ICONIX in Enterprise Architect

Enterprise Architect enables you to develop models under ICONIX quickly and simply, through use of an MDG Technology integrated with the Enterprise Architect installer.

The ICONIX facilities are provided in the form of:

• A set of ICONIX pages in the Toolbox
• ICONIX element and relationship entries in the Toolbox Shortcut Menu and Quick Linker

To further help you develop and manage a project under ICONIX, Enterprise Architect also provides a white paper on the ICONIX Roadmap.

In addition, Enterprise Architect has an alternative visual layout specific to ICONIX.

ICONIX Toolbox Pages

Within the Toolbox, Enterprise Architect provides ICONIX versions of the pages for UML Analysis, Use Case, Class, Interaction (Sequence), Activity and Custom diagrams (which often form the basis for Robustness diagrams).

Compared to the standard Toolbox pages, these have slightly different element and relationship sets; you can access them by either:

• Selecting the 'More tools | ICONIX | <Diagram Type>' menu option for a specific Toolbox page
• Selecting the 'ICONIX' option in the drop-down field of the Default Tools toolbar, which adds all six pages to the Toolbox; the first page and the 'Common' page are expanded, and the others are closed up

ICONIX Layout

The ICONIX layout re-organizes the Enterprise Architect work area, opening the:

• Toolbox on the right hand side of the screen (follow the earlier instructions to display the 'ICONIX' pages)
• 'Learning Center' window auto-hidden in the top right of the screen
• Project Browser window in the top left of the screen, and
• Notes, Properties and Tagged Values windows nested on the bottom left of the screen

To apply this layout, select the 'Basic - Reversed' option in the drop-down list in the Workspace Layout toolbar.

Disable ICONIX

If you prefer not to use ICONIX in Enterprise Architect, you can disable it (and subsequently re-enable it) using the 'MDG Technologies' dialog ('Extensions | MDG Technologies').

This does not affect the ICONIX layout, which you can switch back to your own layout or the Enterprise Architect default layout using the 'View | Perspectives' menu option.