system layers, sub-components, interfaces

[pittagentskip007]

hey all,

So I'm now creating my architecture in EA using UML component diagram. I start out with components representing all of my major systems. From there, I create other components that are subsystems of those systems.

When I want to model the interfaces between the systems, I intend to capture the interactions at the subsystem level i.e. System X's windows scheduled batch job interacts with System Y's database through ODBC.

The problem is that I must also draw a connection between the system X and system Y to have that link portrayed at a higher level since links do not display in aggregrate function i.e. parents dont display the links of their children in diagrams.

To get around the issue, I was forced to create links between the systems as well. I found an interesting way to tie in the subsystem links I created. I did this be creating ports on my system components and type them as the sub components that actually provide the interface. This works great and makes it so that I can navigate from that port to the subsystem implementing it with ease via the traceability window.

Only problem with this is that EA document generator doesn't support printing ports very well.

What do people think of this approach?

What do people think of my approach