Gap analysis matrix - improvements or replacement options?

[Matt]

Hi all,
The Gap Analysis Matrix, looks like it should be a very powerful tool and has some very clever features built in.  Ironically, it also seems to have some gaps in its own functionality, which is why I am posting this question here.

One of the first gaps seems to be around simple formatting of the contents of the cells.  This matrix allows a really useful way to show tabular data, fed from the model which can then be analysed.  It would be great if you could add something like a colour to the background to indicate something like 'priority'.
 
Because this would be something powerful to our end users, I am working on how I could do something like that as an add-in/script/view.  However, before I go too far down that path, I was wondering if someone else had already solved such a thing and am I just duplicating work?  It is likely quicker and easier to deploy an existing add-in (although not that easy due to the way we are running our EA setup).

I have already got scripts etc extracting the data so that I can do stuff with it, but want to present it in a better, easy way.

Any nudges or suggestions would be gratefully received.  Alternatively, if you think it might be useful, that would be good to hear too

[Geert Bellekens]

You might want to talk to the guys from Biner: https://sparxsystems.com/products/3rdparty.html#BinerEASI
They had some advanced gap analysis thing IIRC

Geert

[Matt]

Thanks, Geert!
(why do so many of my forum posts seem to start that way?  )
That looks like a really interesting extension to the whole of EA and will take a detailed look through later.  Just by skim reading the landing page, it might fit to some longer term aspirations for how we use EA.

However, I think that it might be a little 'heavy' for what I am trying to use the matrix for, in the short term.

It is not so much a full TOGAF implementation of gap analysis matrix, it is more making it a more useful matrix driven by data inside EA.

Thanks again...

Matt

[Modesto Vega]

Recently I made an attempt to use this functionality out-of-the-box, here is what I found:
1) Finding the data after saving a gap matrix is not easy, actually is nearly impossible, still have not found if the data was saved and if it was save how to access it
2) Other than writing notes there is no easy way to identify - e.g., through colour coding - any gaps that are not Missing/Eliminated and New. These gaps are as important as Missing/Eliminated and New.
3) Other than not adding a note, there is no easy way to identify no changes - e.g., through colour coding.
4) The selection of the target and baseline architecture (including the filters) is clunky, and it does not always work as expected.

As a result, we started trialling using dependencies to record gaps and considered adding to our MDG a customised class to handle this.