Sparx Systems Forum

Enterprise Architect => Suggestions and Requests => Topic started by: cuninghamd on September 28, 2007, 04:14:26 am

Title: Attribute to attribute traceability
Post by: cuninghamd on September 28, 2007, 04:14:26 am

I have a need for a way to trace at the attribute level - e.g. from domain model attribute to logical model attribute to data model attribute (or multiples thereof).
Ditto for being able to trace from a UI element to an attribute on the domain model/logical model so all validation/constraints for that attribute can be contained in a single place.

I have trawled the forums & there seems to be a number of people requesting this type of feature.

Thanks,

Dave.

Title: Re: Attribute to attribute traceability
Post by: thomaskilian on October 01, 2007, 02:07:03 am

The problem here seems that UML does not offer something handy. It looks like the best way to achiefe this is by using the Role in an association (or a dependency).

Title: Re: Attribute to attribute traceability
Post by: salayande on October 01, 2007, 08:39:04 am

Thomas,
My personal view is that Dave's requirement is independent of modeling notation. It does not matter whether the data model is a UML Class diagram, an IDEFX1 data model or a James Martin IE model.

One of the most valuable techniques in the Data Architect's toolkit is the ability to create a matrix of data attributes against data attributes. The information on attributes at the logical and design levels are held in EA and so I cannot see why these cannot be mapped in matrices.

Another important capability useful for Data and Application Architects is the mapping of process objects (Use Cases and Activities) against data objects (Data classes and attributes) in Matrices with the type of relationship indicating one of the following:
C (Create)
R (Update)
U (Update)
D (Delete)
This is a powerful communication tool.

This is a feature users of older information engineering tools take for granted.

Dave, please, kindly raise a feature request to Sparxsystems. One day and very soon, we may see these features.

Segun

Title: Re: Attribute to attribute traceability
Post by: thomaskilian on October 04, 2007, 08:44:27 am

You are certainly right in saying that this would be a powerful tool. However, EA is an UML modelling tool. And it's meant to be UML compliant. And if UML does not offer such kind of relations I fear EA won't give you the possibility too.

I might be wrong in my observation, though.

Title: Re: Attribute to attribute traceability
Post by: peter.zrnko on October 04, 2007, 11:05:21 pm

See this reply from Simon in a related topic (http://www.sparxsystems.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=general;action=display;num=1179785480;start=13#13):

Quote

It is possible to reference an attribute with a tagged value.  Create a predefined tagged value with the following.

Type=RefGUID;
Values=Attribute;