Does anyone have a guide to ‘Making EA friendly for new users’ ?
There are lots of bits of EA which can be turned off, and some things we can setup for them, which can make the experience for new users simpler and less frightening, but I have never seen them all in one place.
Maybe this thread would be a good place to put such a list? (If people are prepared to add ideas, then I will promise to present it at the next EAUG in the UK)
My starter set is:
1. Reduce the modelling languages available: Specialize/ Manage Tech / un-tick everything, then just tick any that users need. Maybe even remove them from the list… I see loads of users where everything is ticked.
2. Remove any top-level menus/ribbons that user don’t need, such as the ‘Simulate’, Construct and Execute menus: Start / Workspaces / My ribbon sets / un-tick the ones you don’t want, or even sub-menus you don’t need. Many users never use these areas, and it's just more visual clutter, and more places to look.
3. Give users an initial diagram, which is their default, when will appear when they first login, showing them where to find more information. Start / Workspaces / Model places…
These are just my top 3 - any more out there ?
0. Make a workflow that makes sense to you. Then document it, as
*you* will be supporting it!
1. Turn on model security to enforce users and role permissions
2. Define portals and workspaces per role.
3. Make workflow documentation about your role specific implementation.
4. Get Geerts EA validator and tune it to deliver consistency reports on your workflow.
5. Make some reports on your model with the status/states that you would like to see, on the assumption that a bunch of untrained users will stomp all over your interpretation/model/ or EA verterans will make their own (for them superior) submodels (because of course they know better than you, and they can)
6. Roll out access to your model with training about the above
7. GOTO 2. or 0.
This is my current understanding of the workflow.
Any/all of the workflow defaults in EA
*must* be considered as undocumented/undocumentable/unsupported pseudo-examples designed to lure you in with the assumption the documentation for them exists somewhere.
It does not. Its not for nothing that every guide i have ever seen about delivering/supporting EA for users has a first step which is something like 0-3 in the workflow above.
If there is a Sparx document on these features (that makes sense, and is not an EA based publish->dump of the manual) i have yet to find it.
While i have no interest in, links to, idea of, care for, stock in, or bad words to say about "adepreter's libnaf" (or any of the other EA based off the shelf models like arc42) - they at least are well documented in their use and have user support - because they have already done steps 0-7.
