Messages

1

General Board / Re: Elements and Associations are moving on their own...

« on: October 10, 2024, 03:48:07 am »

Whilst the initial testing of that appears to ensure that the changes don't get saved, it does not prevent it from happening whilst the drawing is being viewed.
And obviously wouldn't help for drawings being updated.

Surely there is a way to stop elements moving on their own? This can't be normal...

2

General Board / Elements and Associations are moving on their own...

« on: October 10, 2024, 01:54:33 am »

I have a faily complex deployment diagram. Nodes with nested Devices with nested Artefacts, and many Associations connecting things together.
Associations are manually routed, with 90 degree angles.
I have disabled "Objects Snap to Grid"

What I am finding is that elements will move - on their own - from where I've placed them, by up to 16 pixels, up or down, which makes the diagram look awful. This movement can happen without me making any changes to the diagram. Just it being open, zooming out and in, can cause the effect to happen.

I'm guessing EA is trying to Auto Arrange or Auto Fix something, but I really don't want it to and it's incredibly annoying.

What can I do to stop this? So far I haven't been able to find any setting to stop this happening.

3

General Board / Re: How to visualise requirement/constraint realisations?

« on: December 14, 2023, 06:50:29 pm »

You can create composite diagrams for any element, not only components. I did that all time. Our friend Paolo calls them neighborhood diagram and he has automation to keep them up-to-date.

q.

Hrm then I'm missing something.

I'm using 16.1 and only a subset of the available elements give me an option for Child Diagrams.
Activity Diagram "Actions" & "Events", for example, does not allow for it. I can link a document, but not a diagram.

4

General Board / Re: How to visualise requirement/constraint realisations?

« on: December 14, 2023, 04:05:07 am »

That doesn't solve my issue in that the model doesn't have any indicator that the associations exist.
And, apart from Components, you can't "click into" a diagram that would add those details.
Yes, with Components, I could use Composite Diagrams, which then adds a helpful icon to "look inside", but other elements won't allow that.

5

General Board / How to visualise requirement/constraint realisations?

« on: December 14, 2023, 02:30:22 am »

I am relatively new to modelling software architecture so could use some advice.

• I have my requirements imported into EA.
• I have a range of models with elements and associations that realise these requirements.
• I have a compliance matrix that joins the dots.

However, I'm concerned that my models do not "visually" show the requirement realisations.
If you didn't already know that an element had an associated requirement you wouldn't know about it unless you went around selecting all the elements in a model.
And as my models will be passed onto a software designer, I want to ensure that they understand why certain elements are there, and also that they are immediately aware of the NFRs linked to those elements.

So, as I can't find a simple way to display these associations in the element compartments, I am considering adding requirement elements to the models so that the association can be seen.
However, this can create quite a "busy" diagram which would then be distracting, so I'm looking for a "better way".

I considered adding additional "Requirement Association" models, and linking to existing model elements, but seeing the elements out of context just didn't feel right.
I've considered added text fields next to elements listing requirements but that doesn't allow for the reading of the requirements in situ.

• What would be the best approach here?
• Is there a way to make an element visually indicate associated requirements/constraints without having to add more elements?
• Should I model each component separately so I can add the requirement elements?

Or am I just over thinking this?

6

General Board / What is the best way to separate software requirements?

« on: October 20, 2023, 06:19:55 pm »

We have a workflow that imports all system requirements from DOORS in EA.
Only a subset of these requirements is related to software.

I want to find a way that allows me to run a compliance matrix on just the software requirements against Use Cases, Software Architecture and Software Design.

Is the best option to create a requirement stereotype of "software" and then filter that way in the matrix?

I had hoped to avoid that approach as we already stereotype requirements by source category, and using multiple stereotypes is clunky, doesn't display in the browser, and isn't supported by eaDocX addin.

Tags aren't displayed in the browser at all - so hard to see which ones are which - and I can't see a way to filter the matrix using tags anyway.

Moving all the software requirements to a separate package means that the structure would go out of sync with DOORS so that filtering option isn't viable.

What's the best approach here?