Multidimensional relationship matrix

[bcrier]

A frequent requirement during architecture and design is establishing complex relationships between architectural elements and external information. For example, I would like to define a matrix that captures all my report attributes like report id, report execution time, report type, security, ... etc and then in the last cell I would like to include a link directly  to the report specification in EA.  I know I can do this by manually putting in HTML or RTF links into an Excel, but it would be great if there was an option to load and maintain a matrix in EA.

I am envisioning something like a matrix load option.  The user can use Excel to create an external matrix and load it into EA.  Ea then opens the matrix within itself, and allows addition of columns, where the user can include package links.

This will also help with  complex tracability matrices and decision tables.

Anyone else thinks it is a good idea?

Bobby

I should

[salayande]

I strongly support this submission. I have over the past two years been suggesting that Sparxsystem further develop the Matrix facility. The reason is simple, it is an IT planning and coordination tool. This is proven by the capabilities embedded in the Zachman Add-In which has some model element clustering to generate project implementation dependencies (made popular in IE/EE by Clive Finklestein).

My company has recently procured the services of a consultancy to develop a roadmap for the implementation of three types of EA portfolios, the information architecture, the application architecture and the functional architecture portfolios. This exercise could easily have been achieved using EA if it supported multi-dimensional matrices.

The consultancy chose to use Excel despite the fact that they also use EA for other types of projects. This is an opportunity lost.

kind regards

Segun

[Paolo F Cantoni]

I agree!

The ability to generate matrices was one of the reasons I was drawn to EA (so many years ago, now).  As Segun says, it hasn't really moved on since that time.

Paolo

[NeilS]

Totally agree with the other posts.

I had great expectations after reading about this in Rosenberg's book p388.  This looked like a v.useful traceability feature.

However as you cannot specify a package level my interest level dropped quickly.

Neil

[«Midnight»]

Yes!