Where to Next

By now, you will have some content in your repository and be able to view it in different ways, search for items, publish sections of the repository, collaborate with colleagues, and know where to get help. Now is the time to plan the evolution of the repository and how you will add additional content, and ensure it provides value to your enterprise and project stakeholders. These sections list some things to consider as you further develop your models.

Creating Model Views

As your repository grows in size, understanding and being able to locate specific content will be come more difficult, and casual users of the repository might find the sheer volume of content overwhelming.

While the Browser is the most common way to navigate through a repository the tool has another useful feature called Model Views, which allows you to create tailored personal and team views of repository content. Using Model views you can create:

• Lists of favorite elements and diagrams
• Lists of elements based on a search
• Slide shows of diagrams

Creating the Browser Package Structure

You can take two different approaches to creating a Package structure:

• Create a Package structure up front and then populate it as you work
• Create the Package structure as you go, adding Packages in response to the needs of the stakeholders

Regardless of the approach, a well-organized Package structure will make navigation and updating easier and will facilitate document creation. It would be best to make some decisions about the content of your repository. There are two basic patterns for the content:

• A single repository -  that contains both Enterprise and Project content
• Two separate repositories -  One for the Enterprise and the other for Projects.
• Multiple repositories -  One repository for the Enterprise content and additional repositories for each Program or Project.

Defining your Navigation Pages

Navigation pages with well chosen Navigation Cells will streamline repository navigation and give advanced and novice repository users easy access to diagrams. Consider having a single home page that then launches sub pages. Another strategy is to divide your sub pages in different dimensions; for example:

• A page for each project which then has cells for each discipline
• A page for each discipline - for example, requirements that cut across projects

Importing Additional Content

Populating your repository with content and providing useful views of the content is critical to the success of the project and its acceptance by stakeholders. Where possible, endeavor to make Enterprise Architect the system of record for the data you import. In some situations other systems will remain the system of record, and in these cases it is best - if possible - to use the integrations available through the Pro Cloud Server to access the content. For example, you can integrate with Jira or SharePoint, allowing elements such as User Stories and Documents to be sourced from the external tools but made available in Enterprise Architect. In other cases, the content might exist in documents or spreadsheet files; these are best imported into Enterprise Architect and the original sources decommissioned, thus making Enterprise Architect the system of record. Some of the items you might consider importing are:

• Requirements
• Principles
• Capabilities
• Processes
• Business Rules
• Applications
• Interfaces
• Services
• Security Controls
• Data Models
• Servers