Basic Duration for Activity Diagram Simulation

[bdrake]

Hello all,

I'm a novice EA practitioner, and had a question for those more experienced. I have several basic activity diagrams that I'd like to use for some simulation. For the sake of simplicity, let's say I had a model of making coffee. I'd like to add a duration property for each function (e.g. grind beans - 2 minutes, boil water - 5 minutes, mix ground beans and water  3 minutes | total time - 10 minutes). In theory, adding the duration property would allow me to evaluate complicated processes and determine time characteristics. A plus would be some way to show the results of the logic simulation in a meaningful way to stakeholders. I know typically time constraints are something shown in sequence diagram, but for my purposes, it's much easier to digest the information in an activity diagram.

For context, I used GENESYS MBSE in a past life, and for all functions there was a set property of function duration that could be used in a basic simulation. The simulation report would show the logic and anticipated completion time in the aggregate based on the duration of supporting functions. I can't really find good examples or help in the current Sparx resources. I've seen mentions of using Java to code simulation capabilities, but I'd like to see if there is a way to NOT use Java for creating this simulation.

For extra credit, eventually I'd like to incorporate resources into the model. Continuing the coffee example, is there a way that I can start the simulation saying I have 1 lb of beans available. Function X requires 0.25 lbs of beans to make a pot of coffee, so my overall resource of coffee reflects the usage of coffee over time.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

When I was playing with Simulation (you can find some posts from a couple of years ago).  I found to get things working, I had to start with the EAExample simulations and play with them to understand how the simulation engine worked.  I did get some PoC's working for me.
There is actually not much use here in the forum for simulation, so I was pretty much on my own.

Sorry, I couldn't be more helpful.

Paolo

[bdrake]

Thanks for the response. I suppose maybe a small follow-up question, did you still run your simulations using activity diagrams? I've followed some of the example sims in their example models, but in the activity simulations, it seems to be more of a series of logic tests versus actual dynamic simulation. The out of the box simulation capabilities for activity diagrams seems to be sparse. From what I can tell, the dynamic simulator should allow for some comprehensive runs.

I've yet to see any EA or forum material explicitly say how to set that up. Ideally, I'd like to avoid using the matlab/simulink functionality, and just rely on internal EA functionality. I appreciate the feedback. This portion of EA is odd to me considering GENESYS had the simulation capabilities essentially handed to you on a plate for better or for worse.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

Sorry again. I briefly tried Activity Diagrams, only to confirm the engine was working.  I concentrated on BPMN for my work.  AFAIK, I only used the internal EA functionality.


The good news was that once I got my head around it, it seemed to work.  In fact, the first time we tried it "in anger", it showed a logical flaw in our process that meant we hadn't accounted for all the possible values of a variable at a specific point in the process.



Paolo