How to convince my boss?

[bu66le]

Well, I LOVE EA for the simple reason that I don't need to go thru very thick manuals to get started. It really is a tool for modeling, not a tool u must learn before u can start doing ur work!

But my project manager is kinda sceptical. EA is cheap, but powerful enough to support full software development life cycle. But what really makes EA stands out from other heavyweight modeling tools such as Rose and System Architect? Is the price the only reason I can say that EA is superior compare to Rose and SA? There must be something missing somewhere...  

Any comments?

[sargasso]

Price
Support
Flexibility
No lock in
Process independent
UML 2 support
Automation interface
DBMS accessible externally
Functional integration level
CVS (or whatever) integration
Price
etc etc

hth
Bruce

p.s. the "y" and "o" keys on your keyboard seem to have an intermittent error.

[bu66le]

I completely agree with u, Bruce, but what u can find in EA is available in Rose/System Architect. I would say ease of use but that will not be a very convincing reason to tell ur boss, right? Still, what really makes EA stands out?

[thomas.kilian]

Okay. It's the PRICE. If you like to spend 15 times the money, go with ROSE. You won't get  much more functionality - in some parts it's even less.  For me I'd always buy software with best price/functionality relation.

(Btw. ask your boss to give you a keyboard including y and o)

[mikewhit]

5h0u1dn'7 7h47 63 "my 6055" ?  

And yes, Price/Performance ratio is much better than with RR.

Plus (at the moment) Sparx is very good in terms of support - bugs and issues fed back via the website form get a rapid turnaround - even if it's to say why something won't get addressed in the near future.
Recently, EA updates incorporating fixes and new features have been released at least once a month.

I can't imagine RR giving that attention to individuals (though I could be maligning them ....).

The Automation interface feature may not be unique to EA, but it in principle would allow you to add custom features.

This is one aspect I wish I had more time to address, since an Open Source collection of EA tools would multiply its capabilities, especially in the field of Requirements and Test, where EA feels a little thin - but only compared with the Heavyweights!

[CJ]

Search this forum to see how many folks switched from Rose to EA, and check their reasons.

Then, go to the Rose forum and see how many folks switched from Rose to EA, and again check their reasons.

Maybe some with experience can confirm this:  if it's easy to convert from EA to Rose, then go with EA first and switch if it doesn't work out.

I find the support from the folks at Sparx and the support in these forums too good to pass up for any other product.

[bu66le]

What is the problem with my keyboard? Can u give me an example of the errors? everything looks fine here. its a new computer, u know?   maybe ur monitor has intermittent error  

[mbc]

IMO, it seems not to be a problem with the keyboard. The symptoms indicate the well-known and hard-to-fix "50-centimeter error"  

Mikkel

[SebastienRoy]

In order to convince your boss, with objective elements, you can take a look at the following paper, which compares EA to Rational Rose :
http://consulting.dthomas.co.uk/ooad_articles_resources/Comparison_of_UML_Modelling_Tools.pdf

Sebastien

[thomaskilian]

I totally forgot this one   since this article convinced me in buying EA. BUT - this article is aged a bit and EA now has features which it had not at the time this article was written. Likely the result of this comparison would be even better for EA today.

[mikewhit]

Comparison article:

IMHO that article is rather too simplistic in its tick-box feature comparison.

A more realistic comparison would take the same small-scale project, and try to perform the same round-trip process on each, from requirements capture, analysis and design modelling, test and requirements coverage validation, code generation/resync, and linking to any external documentation.

It should take into account UML functionality, support for process, usability, and the ability to manipulate model views to allow the user to navigate the whole project or drill down into detail.

Tools like this only realise their full benefits when they are used for most of the activities, because there is then synergy between the information in the different parts.

With EA I keep wanting to have some better way of tying in requirements and test coverage with visible diagrams.

A similar exercise for RR versus Artisan Real Time Studio is here : http://www.artisansw.com/products/RtSvRose_info.asp

People should have a look at RTS, and IBM WS, and see if there are any features that could usefully be "requested" - Rose is not the only "other modelling tool" !

[LNS_Software]

I own Rational Rose and EA and although cost of the tool isn't a factor, it's the availability of other features like issue tracking, requirements tracking, etc.  You can buy other tools to do these things for you but for me and relatively small environments EA fits the bill.

Rose also uses a fairly stactic Use Case View, Logical View, Component view and Deployment View for its highest package organization.  While that's okay for certain kinds of modeling, it's restrictive.  That restriction has been removed from Rose XDE but the standard modeler it hasn't.

The other nice thing already mentioned is that the SparxSystems team is very responsive to requests and bugs, and it usually takes less than a month to get in the fix.

But on to the world of support, I've been trying to move my license of Rose from my desktop to my laptop.  Navigating the IBM support area online is just about impossible.  In 8 months of trying, I cannot figure how to do this short of paying big-$$$ for a support call.  It used to be free and easy with Rational.

I recommend EA to anybody doing UML.

[SamJolly]

I would agree with the sentiments on EA. My background is ER modelling, so I am used to heavyweights such as ER/WIN. While this DB functionality is not as good as ER/WIN it is certainly on the way - I look forward to some Trigger DDL.

What I like about EA is the full modelling capability from UI to Data layer. It is very powerful and flexible, but... it would be very useful to have more of a process type tutorial which describes the best way of using EA in going from Requirements through Design to Implementation. Zicom and the help files are excellent in what they do, but...

Also I like the potential of the Forward engineering Template mechanism. Just need to find out how to write templates...

I have a software design consultancy, and I am more than happy to go with EA, but when I meet up with my Rose clients I am going to be more than interested in EA's robust model export/import capabilities....

For now, more reading and playing to get the value out of EA.

Sam

[bu66le]

Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions, I guess I finally got my project manager convinced and EA is included into the list

It definitely is undisputable that Rose is not the only "other modelling tool", BUT "the real value proposition of applying the UML isn't using a UML tool, it is the advantage of visual modeling quickly sketching in pictures rather than just text, as this plays to a strength of humans to comprehend relationships quickly. It supports better collaborative design and alternative explorations". I really like that way Craig says about this. Take a few minutes off to read it

[thomaskilian]

I believe that Craig is right in saying that white boards are much more effective than any modelling tool. But with one wipe every design on the whiteboard is lost.

Even a camera snapshot won't help since the picture taken will not allow to get the same impression as from the white board directly.

So if you're after permanently documenting your results: have a white board party and put the results in a UML CASE tool.