Messages

421

General Board / Re: Deployment Diagram questions

« on: June 22, 2018, 07:55:54 pm »

"We've been simply using a single node using a naming convention 'Cluster'<Type><RootName><Node1Name>/<Node2Name>/etc. So example ClusterAIXFluffA/B/C. However, there are times when we'd like to specify differences in node behavior in instances of the same cluster type. So ClusterAIXFluffA/B/C is a mirrored redundant set of nodes but ClusterAIXPeanutA/B/C has a primary node with two fail-over nodes. Our engineers need to know that a node failure on ClusterFluff is automatically handled and no special code needs to be written."

In my opinion the problem is that this is not information that should described in a deployment diagram.  There are other diagrams where you can describe classifier properties, behavior and interaction logic.

422

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Open Management Group UML Profile for ArchiMate v3

« on: June 14, 2018, 12:18:33 am »

John, I think you are mixing up the Open Group (that manages the Archimate standard) and the Object Management Group (that manages the UML standard).  I suspect this is why you refer to the "Open Management Group" .

They are two separate and independent bodies, and Archimate and UML are not related besides the fact that you can mimic Archimate using UML's wonderful extensibility mechanisms (profiles and such).  And it's great that Sparx EA has the MDG mechanism to replicate Archimate functionality.

I won't get into the argument of why Archimate looks like UML (there be cans of worms!!!)

More info on Wikipedia

423

General Board / Re: Star Schema / Dimensional Database

« on: June 08, 2018, 10:42:41 pm »

*Drops monocle*
I thought star schema is just a style of schema implementable in any relational database?  Should be OK unless you need to forward engineer to a RDBMS that EA does not have DDL generation for

424

General Board / Re: Reusing a Use Case, generic or template?

« on: June 06, 2018, 11:24:17 pm »

Yes that one and when you finished it (a couple of afternoons max), "Applying use cases" by Schneider and Winters is a great next step.

By the way to the original poster: what you are describing below is best modeled via a sequence diagram
1 - System A sends request to System B
2 - System B validates request
3 - User gains access System B

What request is sent?  What classes are impacted by that message? What objects sent, what operations invoked?  How does that change your class diagram?  How about the validation?  That's where things get interesting.

425

General Board / Re: Reusing a Use Case, generic or template?

« on: June 05, 2018, 07:50:18 pm »

I only can recommend Bittner/Spence. Use case synthesis is a rather simple thing. But sometimes simple things are harder to understand than complex ones. IT people tend to analyze things and dissect them once they start with it. But UCs are just the other way around. I always see the same sort of questions (yes, I had them too in the beginning when working with UCs). The only remedy is to understand what UCs are good for. It's like teaching people Zen. So simple. So difficult.

q.

What q. said.  Really good and easy book.

426

General Board / Re: Importing Visio via MDG Add-in - how to improve import quality?

« on: June 02, 2018, 12:53:39 am »

Learning how to model for the first time using EA is a bit like learning to drive by starting with an 18 wheel truck.  I usually recommend that people get the hang of modeling using the free Archi tool (www.archimatetool.com) and then come over to EA once the basic principles are understood. You can even export your models from Archi and import them into EA when you are ready.  Clearly that works best when using Archimate, but it has really helped me help people get over the mental barrier between diagramming and modeling.

My experience is that if the modeler understands the notation and methodology, using the tool is not a challenge.  Most of the screw-ups are because the modelers try to do something the notation was never designed to do.  My experience is that heavy investment in training for notation (UML, Archimate, BPMN... pick your poison) and in methodology (what an artifact is and how it should be used) pays back in spades.  Then Sparx, Papyrus, Rational... you can spend an afternoon giving modelers the tool overview and then let them look up details in documentation as needed (usually Google works wonders).

427

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Oracle Reverse Engineer

« on: May 30, 2018, 06:34:07 pm »

Yes, I know that EA can't RE a DDL. Unfortunately there's no emphasis for irony/sarcasm in texts.

q.

I didn't know that!  Not even the higher cost versions?  Don't open source tools like MySQLWorkbench do that already?  Me sees a feature request lurking somewhere......

428

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Oracle Reverse Engineer

« on: May 29, 2018, 10:10:38 pm »

I'm not an Oracle expert but any RDBMS should spit out the schema DDL code as a text file on request.  Then just run the DDL in EA to recreate the schema as a physical data model?

429

General Board / Re: Importing Visio via MDG Add-in - how to improve import quality?

« on: May 24, 2018, 11:34:26 am »

Hello Casey,
because of Visio, what you have is artwork, not artifacts.  No model consistency or metadata that you can really use.  You will have to clean up the artwork anyways before you can do anything useful with it, and the easiest/fastest/most accurate way to do it is right at import into EA.  My 2c is to bite the bullet and manually generate useful artifacts in EA using the artwork you have in Visio. 

430

General Board / Re: Step by step Guide

« on: May 19, 2018, 12:34:50 pm »

Hello,
how you use EA to document requirements depends mostly on how you are going to use the requirements.  There are several good ways to do this...
If you are going to use the requirements to drive UML based software design or system architecture, then the book "Applying use cases" by G. Schneider and J. Winters is more than enough to get you on your way.  It's a very easy read.  Then it will be obvious what to do in EA.
Good luck!

431

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Could Sparx Systems be more Agile in their delivery?

« on: April 26, 2018, 07:28:43 pm »

Seems like Release 14 is late, buggy and nobody really asked for it, so it seems to me like it's as Agile as you can get!!!


..... sorry it's been a long nasty week, I'll see myself out...... 

432

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Low code development

« on: April 26, 2018, 07:26:20 pm »

BPMN is managed by OMG but is not UML... maybe one day OMG will improve the sticky mess of Activity Diagrams by making them more BPMN-like... but for now it's entirely appropriate that BPMN is a small add-on to EA as a simple profile, like ERD data modeling etc.  My 2c

433

General Board / Re: Aris vs EA for Process Modelling

« on: April 26, 2018, 06:54:23 pm »

Hi Paolo where can I learn more about this clarification service? Sounds interesting!

So I would focus efforts on getting maximum clarity on what your client wants to achieve and how they want to achieve it - then the tool choice should be straightforward.

Yeah... Good luck with that.

/Uffe

Our EA Organisation now offers a "Clarification Service" to help users agree what they are talking about.  It's based on our Onto-Terminological Modelling and the few User Departments that have used it have been very pleased with the results.

Paolo

434

Bugs and Issues / Re: Window aliasing on Windows 10 external monitor + mouse control issues

« on: April 26, 2018, 03:24:18 pm »

Thanks Simon!
I'm interested to learn more about ways to mitigate this, especially the mouse mistaking the shadow for the actual window.
I'm running same resolution on Notebook and monitor (1920x1080 using DisplayPort) and I'm getting the shadow regardless of resolution setting or video input (VGA D-Sub, HDMI, DisplayPort).
My previous Windows 10 image on exactly same hardware did not have this problem (I had to reimage last week due to registry corruption)
Any more ideas I could try?

435

Bugs and Issues / Window aliasing on Windows 10 external monitor + mouse control issues

« on: April 26, 2018, 12:53:57 pm »

I have a weird issue on Sparx EA 1310 on Windows 10.
I often run workshops with the diagram in question on an external monitor or projector, and the EA main window with the project explorer, tool box etc. on my notebook screen.
Whenever I am connected to an external monitor or projector, an alias (shadow) appears near the the  window of EA main body and of the diagram; and the mouse sometimes works only on the alias, or only on the actual window.  Essentially I lose mouse control.  This issue occurs only with EA; none of my other programs show this behavior.  I have a screen capture but seems like the 'attach image' function is not working....

Can anyone recommend an EA setting or a Win10 setting that can remove this issue?  It's very disruptive (I have 10 people in a room waiting for me to goof around with the mouse  jumping from one window to its alias.....)  thanks!