Hi All,
I am using EA 8.0.862 on Windows XP and have a situation as detailed below. I would appreciate if you could kindly share your thoughts on this problem:
Current Process/Practice:
C1) The Physical Data Model (PDM) and Logical Data Model (LDM) is modelled and maintained in ERwin.
C2) This is then exported from Erwin as Sparx Enterprise Architect (EA) specific XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) file. There is an option in ERwin to do this.
C3) This XMI from ERwin is then imported into EA.
C4) In EA the elements from the LDM package is then copied to a new package to model Business Object Model (BOM).
C5) This BOM could be a web service (based on EA WSDL stereotypes) or a Java API.
C6) We use Adaptive Metadata Manager (AMM) to publish the Data Lineage between PDM -> LDM -> BOM and business term definition and glossary.
C7) First ERwin's 'repository format' file containing both PDM and LDM is imported into AMM using AMM's Meta Integration Model Bridge (MIMB). AMM recognises the links (data lineage) between PDM -> LDM straightaway. I believe this is because both ERwin and AMM are Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) compatible.
C8) Then BOM is imported into AMM as standard EA UML_1.4_XMI_1.2 or UML_2.1_XMI_2.1 XMI export and the data lineage links from BOM to LDM are manually configured in the AMM.
Problem Overview:
P1) On importing EA specific XMI export from ERwin into EA, the attribute links (data lineage) between PDM -> LDM are not preserved. eg link between PDM.Customer.name and LDM.Customer.name is lost. However the ERwin's 'repository format' export seems to hold the details of the data lineage.
P2) On importing the LDM, I am unable to create attribute/data lineage links between LDM -> BOM in such a way that when exported as XMI this information will still be held in the XMI.
My requirement specific to ...
1) Data Lineage:
If possible, to have data lineage preserved, within PDM & LDM in ERwin XMI format exported for EA, preferably as per OMG/other standards (eg CWM but without any work around or hacks). If this is not possible as per OMG/other standards then I can settle for some workaround tweaks that would enable me to achieve this.
Once imported into EA I would like to develop the BOM and create data lineage links from BOM to LDM.
This PDM, LDM & BOM to be then exported as XMI (preserving the data lineage links) into AMM.
Just to be clear by mentioning data lineage I mean Attribute level lineage links between PDM.Customer.name -> LDM.Customer.name -> BOM.Customer.name.
2) Incremental updates from ERwin to EA:
If possible to export delta (changes alone) as XMI from ERwin into EA and EA to gracefully sync the same within EA, of course everything is done under subversion version control.
Questions:
Q1) Can data lineage be preserved in the XMI format exported from ERwin? If not is there any alternatives?
Q2) If XMI could preserve the data lineage links then can EA preserve them in model post import?
Q3) How can data lineage be developed in EA between LDM -> BOM, preferably in a standardised way (eg OMG, CWM, etc)?
Q4) Is it possible to update the changes in increments from ERwin to EA? If this is not possible (i.e., if only the full latest ERwin LDM could be exported as XMI) then can EA gracefully merge the latest version from ERwin without overwriting the existing model? This is a concern as any existing links from BOM could get delinked or lost if the EA LDM is overwritten.
Q5) Also as the BOM is a copy of the LDM initially to start with and BOM being developed over it, is there a way to update the changes from LDM incrementally into the BOM which means that I need not recreate the BOM from scratch?
Q6) If this is not achievable in EA then could you suggest some other Enterprise level worthy tools from your experience that is capable of doing the above?
Thanks in advance!
