Introduction. Phil George Service & Architecture Manager Sheffield Hallam University. Enterprise Architect from Sparx Systems.

Transcription

1 Sparx Systems - 'Enterprise Architect' Introduction Phil George Service & Architecture Manager Sheffield Hallam University Enterprise Architect from Sparx Systems Product Overview Examples & Lessons Learned Future Plans

2 Sparx Systems - 'Enterprise Architect' Product Overview - Basics Modelling tool with repository Supports UML, BPMN, Archimate, SysML and many other notations Create new elements, with properties & description, just in repository or directly on diagram Drag existing elements on to diagrams Link elements using connectors Automatically pull in linked items onto diagram Filter diagram displays Use automatic layout options

3 Sparx Systems - 'Enterprise Architect' Product Overview - Beyond diagrams Generates RTF documents including diagrams, element descriptions, connections, properties and attributes, using templates Generates HTML files with clickable diagrams Provides simulated flows through process models Allows customisation of element types, properties (tagged values) & appearance Allows customisation of available toolsets

4 Table of Contents Extra slide, not presented RTF report example Page Spendvision diagram Page Spendvision connections The content and formatting of RTF reports is controlled by user-definable templates

5 Clickable Spendvision diagram in browser Extra slide, not presented HTML reports example Clicking on an element shows description, connections and diagram list Clicking on a connection navigates to the linked element Clicking on a diagram link navigates to that diagram The content and formatting of HTML reports has a degree of user control

6 Sparx Systems - 'Enterprise Architect' Product Overview - Full Power Supports Project Management Supports Requirements Traceability Supports software engineering code generation DDL generation Reverse engineering of code & data Supports Test planning

7 Sparx Systems - 'Enterprise Architect' Product Overview - Costs (as at 25/04/2014) Academic / Non-Commercial Licence (Institutional - 'Ultimate edition') - 3 options: Academic License Initial Price 30 concurrent User Academic Site License US $ concurrent User Academic Site License US $6259 Unlimited Users Academic Site License US $12839 Annual Maintenance approx 30% for: Upgrades to latest versions Technical support

8 Look and Feel

9 What have we done? Systems Catalogue - 1

10 What have we done? Systems Catalogue - 2 Published in HTML Published in PDFs: Systems with Links Job Roles with links Platforms with links etc

11 What have we done? Service Catalogue Internal IT view Similar to systems catalogue in principle, Services are connected to underpinning Systems giving bigger picture

12 What have we done? Business Function Model 10 major areas, each broken down to 2 more levels Linked to Systems & Services Subsequently re-presented in grid format using same elements

13 What have we done? Architectural principles

14 What have we done? Data Modelling - 1

15 What have we done? Data Modelling - 2 NB this is an illustrative, unratified, draft diagram

16 What have we done? Business Process Modelling

17 Lessons Learned - 1 We find Sparx Systems' Enterprise Architect to : be highly featured for the full development lifecycle, not just high level views (currently we only use a fraction of its capability) be very good value for the Academic / Non Commercial licence require significant training and/or hands on time for anything beyond simple drawing - though customisation could reduce this.

18 Lessons Learned - 2 We find Sparx Systems' Enterprise Architect to : be an effective tool for documenting systems and service catalogues and business process models be powerful (but not quite as flexible or intuitive as we would like) at producing documents in rich text be very valuable (but not quite as flexible or intuitive as we would like) in producing documents in HTML for publication on SharePoint / intranet Work well with both a large, shared central repository and with small private files

19 Lessons Learned - 3 We find Sparx Systems' Enterprise Architect to : provide APIs which can facilitate bulk manipulation and reporting of the underlying repository - but these require technical skills to exploit Allow 'reverse engineering' of database schema - the usefulness is dependent on the level of metadata in the schema. (Not tried reverse engineering code). be capable of simulating flow through a business process model

20 Lessons Learned - 4 We find Sparx Systems' Enterprise Architect to : be capable of use by business users for business process modelling allow creation of customised element stereotypes and toolboxes for new types of diagram Require careful organisation of packages to get the best results for document generation have helpful technical support - though we have not used this much

21 Lessons Learned - 5 We find Sparx Systems' Enterprise Architect to : Provide a security mechanism which is not quite as flexible as we would like provide a mechanism for baselining models, allowing restoration to an earlier point provide hooks to several version control tools, and also a method of creating versions in EA which we have not used - we have tended to keep generated RTF and HTML as historical versions

22 Lessons Learned - 6 We find Sparx Systems' Enterprise Architect* to : need considerable planning/effort to keep a large centralised model organised (we use Zachman)......particularly if you have many modellers......from different parts of the institution......with some only using it infrequently. *These points probably apply to any tool maintaining a central repository

23 Simplify filing structure Futures Build more areas of an Enterprise Model by stealth Customise a streamlined/simplified toolset Begin use in teaching (probably) Review what we think should be in EA and what should be in other tools (eg a CMDB)

24 This presentation was made to the UCISA "Enterprise Architecture Tools and Next Steps for the Community of Practice" meeting on the 28 th April The opinions are based on our specific experiences which are affected by our training, consultancy, technical competence, time invested and the nature of the work we have undertaken. The experiences of other organisations may be considerably different. Thank you