Creating a Requirement Profile in EA 12

[sarahjsteel]

I'm pretty new to EA and need to use it mainly for requirements management. I really need to create a Requirement Profile so that I can apply the Volere template (requirement attributes) to my requirements, but I can't quite get it right - I'm tying myself in knots!

I really need a step-by-step guide (preferably a video!) to creating a requirement profile with tagged values in EA 12 - the online help is all based around older versions, and quite a lot of the menu items and dialogues have changed/don't match the examples. I've spent several hours trying to get this right already, but I'm just not quite there and I don't know what I'm missing. I'm certain that this would be pretty straight-forward for somebody who is familar with EA.

Can anybody point me in the direction of some appropriate EA12-based help with this please? Any help would be so much appreciated right now - I need to get on with the "real" work of generating the requirements for my project, and this is driving me nuts!

Thank you so much.
Sarah.

[Glassboy]

Hi have you see the Sparx white paper on requirements management?

[sarahjsteel]

Thanks for replying  . I have seen the whitepaper, and that's mainly how I know that there's a way to do what I want to do. Unfortunately it doesn't tell me exactly how to do it in EA12 - the Help topic it points to is not using the same version of EA so sometimes the instructions just don't tie up with what I'm seeing -  and I'm new to both the tool and actually applying UML so it's hard for me to freestyle even a little bit at this stage.

That said, having already spent quite a lot of time trying to figure it out, maybe now I'll be able to make more sense of the limited instructions that are there, so I'll give it another look. I do have something that looks very similar to the example shown in the doc, it just doesn't seem to be working when I try to use it so I think I missed a step somewhere.

Thanks for your help. If you know of any rookie mistakes when setting up and using a new profile, do feel free to point them out - I am definitely a rookie, and right now mistakes are my middle name 

[Geert Bellekens]

Sarah,

Have you enabled the MDG technology Builder MDG?
That is the one to start with.
You can then create a MDG model using right click on package, choose Add a Model using Wizard.
Then there's at Framework a Basic and Simple template for making an MDG technology.

Furthermore there are excellent step by step instructions in the learning center (ALT-F1) on how to make profiles and an MDG.
See Enterprise Architect -> Modelling Languages -> Build a Profile
and Enterprise Architect -> Modelling Languages -> Build a Technology

And finally there's Thomas Kilians tutorial: http://liquit.biz/brain/enterprise.html

Geert

Geert

[sarahjsteel]

Thank you Geert, I have a couple of hours later today so I'll take a look at those things too and let you know how I get on. It's the last couple of hours I can afford to spend on this though, after that it will just have to be simple tagged values :-(

[Geert Bellekens]

That would be a shame. It's really not that difficult, and much easier to distribute and maintain that way.

Geert

[sarahjsteel]

I'm sure "It's really not that difficult" when you know the system really well and understand all the terminology ;-) However, I've spent another 2.5 hours following all the instructions to the letter and still don't have something that works :-(

I've created profiles and an MDG Technology. My new stereotype appears in it's own toolbox, but when I drag it onto a diagram... nothing. It just doesn't appear. I just can't see what I'm missing, but I'm at the point of thinking I might just write my requirements in an Excel spreadsheet - it's that bad!!

Should you have any suggestions as to why an item can exist and appear to be dragged onto a diagram, but not actually show up there, I would be truly grateful to hear them. There don't seem to be any error messages to say I'm doing something wrong, so I have no idea where to go next with this.

Thanks so much for your help.
Sarah.

[Geert Bellekens]

Hi Sara,

You probably did something wrong when defining the toolbox. EA is pretty picky on what it says the underlying meta type is.
If you post images of your profile diagram, and your toolbox profile diagram here we might be able to spot the error.
(posting an image here means posting it somewhere on a public image hosting site such as imgur and posting the link to that image in an img tag)

Here's how my profile diagram looks

and this is the toolbox profile diagram


Geert

[sarahjsteel]

Hi Geert,

I had been hoping not to have to bother you again, but I've been through the whole process again, made a few tweeks where I thought things were maybe not quite right, but got the exact same result - all looks ok, but when I try to drag my new requirement onto a diagram nothing happens. It either isn't there, or it's invisible!

So, as you suggested, I'm sharing my diagrams in the hope there is something obvious there (to me, they look just the same as yours, but I guess they can't be or it would be working!).

Profile diagram:


Toolbox Profile diagram:


The only other thing I can think is that it is to do with the way I am saving the UML profile for each diagram - sometimes the instructions say right-click on the diagram, other times they say right-click on the package. Apparently the two methods have slightly different outcomes - maybe I made a mistake in which method I used at some point?

Thanks again for your help,
Sarah.

[sarahjsteel]

Great, my images didn't come across from imgur - yet something else I now have to learn how to do! Sorry, I'm really not an idiot, this is just all new stuff for me and I clearly don't have it yet!!

[sarahjsteel]

Toolbox PRofile diagram:

[sarahjsteel]

Profile Diagram:

[Geert Bellekens]

I usually only right click on the packages to save them as UML Profile.
It only really matters if you want to "override" a standard toolbox. Then you have to make sure to put the "override" statement in the package notes (and not the diagram notes)

From what I can see from the images that looks quite OK. So you did save them both as UML profile to different files (one for the UML Profile and one for the toolbox profile)? and then select them in the MDG creation wizard?

To make sure that your profile is OK you can also import it directly in the resources. That will then create a default toolbox for your profile.

If you can't figure it out yourself just send an email to Sparx Support with your profile model. They'll be happy to have a look at it for you.

Geert

[sarahjsteel]

Thanks Geert, really appreciate your help. I think I did everything the way you said, but I'll take another look just to be sure. Thanks again, Sarah.

[Pawel Zubkiewicz]

Hi, Geert,

I didn't want to create new topic for my question, so I'm writing here. I'm extending ArchiMate2, in detail my new type: Risk extends ArchiMate Driver element:


And I have a following problem. When I try to add element of my new type Risk, a menu appears on the diagram. Both options give the same result: element is created but I just want to get rid of that ridiculus menu.


Code of my profile does not contains duplicated Risk element

Code: [Select]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252"?>
<UMLProfile profiletype="uml2">
<Documentation id="FCD7152E-B" name="ArchiMate2 Extension" version="1.0" notes="ArchiMate2 Extension"/>
<Content>
<Stereotypes>
<Stereotype name="ArchiMate_Risk" metatype="Risk" notes="" cx="106" cy="70" bgcolor="-1" fontcolor="-1" bordercolor="-1" borderwidth="-1" hideicon="0" generalizes="Archimate2::ArchiMate_Driver" baseStereotypes="Archimate2::ArchiMate_Driver">
<AppliesTo>
<Apply type="Class">
<Property name="isActive" value=""/>
</Apply>
</AppliesTo>
</Stereotype>
</Stereotypes>
<TaggedValueTypes/>
</Content>
</UMLProfile>
I didn't use <<toolbox profile>> as I don't see any value in it (probably I'm doing something wrong with it, but is messes my profile even more). So the profile above is the only one that I imported into the model. However, another question Geert, is it possible to add my new type Risk to already predefined list / menu? I would like Risk to appear inside of Archimate2 -> Motivation group and not in my new, custom group "ArchiMate2 Extension". Is that even possible?


Thanks in advance,
Cheers