Teamwork - what version

[JanNilsson]

Hi
I am evaluating EA. There will be a group of about 10 people at the same location using the product if we descide to go with EA. I have been searching the web to get information about what version we need to use to be able to have version control (Subversion) and have multiple concurrent users on the same project but not found a clear answer.
Any suggestions? Our functual demands gives us the PRocessional version.

TIA

/Jan

[Geert Bellekens]

Jan,

You need the corporate version at least.
Multiple concurrent users and MS-Access (which is the format you will be using when using Professional) are not the best of friends.

With the corporate version you can store the repository in a "real" database.

Geert

[Uffe]

Hello Jan,


I concur. EA supports a large number of database servers in various price ranges (http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/demos/team-modeling/setting-up-a-team-modeling-environment.html#1), so you should be able to get an EA repository running on your existing infrastructure with a minimum of fuss.

It is possible to use the "file-based repository" approach, but as Geert says, it's not as robust as a proper DBMS and Sparx recommends no more than 10 users on a file-based repository so you'd be pushing the envelope from day one.

It's worth mentioning that you can easily transition from a file-based repository to a DBMS-based one if you want to start small. Upgrading to a higher-level license is also straightforward, it does not require reinstallation of the client nor any changes in the repository.

As to version control, I do urge you to look at EA's internal baseline system during your evaluation. With baselines, old versions of packages are themselves stored in the EA repository, so there's no other tool involved. Baselining also allows you to visually compare the current version with an older one (what's new, what's deleted, what's moved in the diagrams), which Subversion-based version control does not do. [Please note, this is correct as of EA 11. It might have changed in EA 12, I haven't checked.]

For these reasons I always recommend the baseline approach over an external version control system (eg Subversion) when using a DBMS repository. Geert and I tend not to fully agree on this.  

So for any team-based modelling, Corporate is the minimum. Corporate is also essentially the top tier in terms of core functionality. Above that it's mostly different modelling languages / frameworks (eg SysML) and integrations with other tools.

HTH,


/Uffe

[Eve]

As to version control, I do urge you to look at EA's internal baseline system during your evaluation. With baselines, old versions of packages are themselves stored in the EA repository, so there's no other tool involved. Baselining also allows you to visually compare the current version with an older one (what's new, what's deleted, what's moved in the diagrams), which Subversion-based version control does not do. [Please note, this is correct as of EA 11. It might have changed in EA 12, I haven't checked.]

Well, it's close to correct. The baseline compare can also be used for a file on the filesystem. If you were using subversion you could get an old version out and select it to compare to. Having said that, without EA finding the appropriate file for you it's probably hard enough on even a moderately sized project that what you've said is close enough to truth that it's unlikely too many people will be using it.