Sparx Systems Forum
Enterprise Architect => General Board => Topic started by: frank on February 12, 2003, 06:51:04 am
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Zicom Mentor is the ideal companion to EA for those wanting the UML specification at the fingertips while actively engaged in modeling work.
See: http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/zm/zm.htm
If anybody goes ahead and purchases this I would be interested in seeing a review. As the evaluation version seems to be content free, it is hard for me to tell if it would provide a useful reference or a useless (to me) high level overview.
Frank.
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Not sure why, but my last message is displaying to me as black on black. In case it is doing so for all, here is what I wrote after the quote:
If anybody goes ahead and purchases this I would be interested in seeing a review. As the evaluation version seems to be content free, it is hard for me to tell if it would provide a useful reference or a useless (to me) high level overview.
Frank.
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Hmmm... that all balck look is tres Goth, eh?
Yup - I've just coughed up for Zicom Mentor (with a name like that how can you resist it? :o)
It's actually pretty detailed, and not a top level overview at all. I'm still a bit of a beginner with the UML, and a good portion of it is inpenetrable-ish.
However, it's a matter of context. I'm finding that every day I'm 'getting it' more and more with the UML, so using the Mentor to look up exactly what a symbol is supposed to do is meaning more and more to me.
Personally, I feel that it could do with more by way of a top level overview, as I'm aware that there's a core set of UML symbols that cover 90% of what you need. There's no way to distill this out of the Mentor's barrage of detail.
Have another look at the sample version, as where there is some actual content, it's pretty representative of the rest of it.
All the best
Andrew Webster
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I purchased it because I believe it will help me explain things when sitting next to a client discussing what all the "pretty pictures" actually mean.
I found it to be a quick and handy reference to the UML symbols and diagrams. There are some symbols that I don't use very much and so, its nice to have a reference to it. Its is extremely well organized and frankly makes good use of visual presentation coupled with textual information. And, it is color blind friendly (thank goodness).
Simply put: Buy it.
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One of the keenest of our early adopters bought Mentor himself, and gave us a demo of it on Friday (14/2). Context-sensitive UML help in the modelling will be very useful for the introduction of modelling in the team... we have a variety of UML skill levels, and this will be a great equalizer.
It will certainly be adopted if we can ever get past the business case stage. ::)
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Yes - when I first got into UML via EA for home I was a little ??? with this whole UML thing. I had lunch with the Mentor himself :o and things started to make sense. When I saw Zircom Mentor I just had to get it ;D. Mentor will take my understanding to a higher level...
I demo'd the product to my Super Models discussion group and they immediately bought a couple of lic's. Feedback to date has been GREAT by the couple of guys using it because of our various levels of UML understanding within our group.
All we have to do now is YES - get past the Business Case!! and we should be flying with both EA Corp and Zircom Mentor!!!
Keep the good work up Geoffrey S/Stephen M
Mark Bourne
A Major Bank/CHILLI-HOT.COM Pty Ltd
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Bought it - is a great help for referencing the UML quickly - The one are in which I would have liked to see more is on the example side. For someone to use it as a good reference tool -examples will clear up understanding significantly.
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Examples? Rumour has it that something is maybe in the making... ;D
Stay tuned to this channel...
Regards
Mark Bourne
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About Examples[/b].
There are currently many examples in the Mentor and each element is given a pictorial context, which gives an indication of its usage. Every new version of Zicom Mentor will have more and more examples. The order for inclusion is based on the author's 6 years experience teaching and implementing with UML in real projects and knowledge of the traps that people can fall into when starting to use the UML.
The examples are not going to be added as a single group but will be included with every new version (every month or so) so if you would like to suggest areas which you, or your team, or your organisation would like examples for - please just email the Mentor at [email protected] and I will ensure they are pushed up the order of precedence for you.
Stephen Maguire (Mentor Author)