Messages

1

General Board / Re: Best diagram/tool for documenting high-level architecture?

« on: August 02, 2018, 10:53:38 pm »

Free drawing in EA is just nonsense (well, most of the times). You want objects with meaning to be modeled. Not just dumb scribble. Maybe you look into Archimate. To document existing architecture you can also go with simple components, ports and interfaces. Worked well for me.

q.

Ha ha - I agree we don't want dumb scribble, and we want objects with meaning! I'm trying to get a balance between adopting an entire methodology to get some initially simple diagramming done.

When you say simple components, ports and interfaces, can you elaborate? Are you suggesting I can do this in EA or Archimate?

2

General Board / Re: Best diagram/tool for documenting high-level architecture?

« on: August 02, 2018, 10:01:42 pm »

Thanks for the feedback - all very useful.

At the risk of not conforming to the received wisdom with such things, is there a simple diagramming tool in EA which we can use to effectively free-draw a diagram of the systems (with drill-down), without adopting a specific methodology?

Ultimately we should and probably will use a formal architecture methodology, but initially we need simple, quick diagrams.

James

3

General Board / Best diagram/tool for documenting high-level architecture?

« on: August 02, 2018, 01:37:02 am »

We have a customer who has asked us to document their systems starting at a high level and then drilling down into them.

They want the documentation to be diagrammatic rather than wordy (at the higher level at least).

Ideally they would like to have either a PDF or HTML diagram which can be drilled down into to navigate the detail of systems as they are discovered and documented.

Is EA suitable for this? I imagine so - I used it several years ago and know that it is very very capable.

If so, what diagram type is going to be best for this? Can we have drill-down in the generated diagrams (PDF or HTML or other)?

We want to get up and running fairly quickly, without (dare I say it), getting too hung up on methodologies etc! I think we only need the Professional edition (unless people advise differently).

I'd be interested in what people here can suggest.

Regards,

James