Balancing information/data flows between hierarchical diagrams

[chris.warburton2]

Can anyone recommend a clever way of balancing information or data flows between hierarchical diagrams, other than manually checking? I'm using the 'Information Items Conveyed' feature to load my items onto the flow but ideally would only do that at the leaf activity level and have the branch and trunk level activity flows be either automatically populated or a tool to identify inconsistencies.

An illustration of what I mean - Parent diagram:
                        ------------------------------------------
                        |                                                  |
 -----------         |      ------------            -----------    |         -----------
 |  Act 1  |-------|--->|  Act 2  |-------->|  Act 3  |---|----->|  Act 4  |
 -----------         |      ------------            -----------    |         -----------
                        |                                                  |
                        ------------------------------------------

Child diagram of 'Act 2':
                         ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         |                                                                                            |
  -----------         |      --------------               -------------                 -------------    |         -----------
  |  Act 1  |-------|--->|  Act 2.1  |---------->|  Act 2.2  |----------->|  Act 2.3  |---|----->|  Act 3  |
  -----------         |      --------------               -------------                 -------------    |         -----------
                         |               ^                            |                                             |
                         |                |______________|                                             |
                         |                                                                                            |
                         ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apologies for the ASCII art! Couldn't find another way of drawing what I mean.

So here the flow between 'Act 1' and 'Act 2.1' on the child diagram would need to balance with the flow between 'Act 1' and 'Act 2' on the parent.

Any suggestions?

[Geert Bellekens]

Chris,

I don't think that's a good idea at all.
It seems to me that the whole point of having a composite Activity diagram for Act2 is to hide the complexity from the outside world.
So neither Act1 nor Act3 should be connected to any of the "sub" elements of Act2.
You shouldn't even have Act1 and Act2 on the "child diagram" of Act2 since in another context there might be Act6 and Act7 that are connected to Act2.

I think it's best to keep the scope of the "inside" view of Act2 limited to the elements owned by Act2

Geert

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