Duration for Activity Diagrams

[bdrake]

Hello all, I have a basic activity diagram and I can't find any methods to apply a duration for each activity. In theory, I'd like to apply X amount of hours and then use the simulation capability to determine the aggregate duration. E.g. function A takes 3 hours, function B takes 4 hours. Total duration = 7 hours.

Over time I would like to mature the activity diagram to include parallel activities, and activities that are paused for resource allocation.

[Eve]

It exists for BPMN (search for BPSim)

[PDC]

I think the 'textbook' answer is to make sure you're using the right tool for the job. i.e. if the SysML spec (or EA) can't constrain Actions by time then maybe you could look into using Interactions (i.e. Sequence Diagrams or UML Timing Diagrams) - see section 11.1.5 of the SysML spec.
Alternatively, if you don't actually need to simulate the Activity using EA's built-in Simulation feature, then you could just add a Tagged Value called 'Time' to each Action and then you'lll be able to aggregate them quite easily using a script or something similar.

Honestly though I've never really tried to do what you're doing, and there may be some clever stuff you can do achieve your goal with the Activity features of EA. I'd also be interested to know if it's possible.