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TORMIGO - rational change report based on Enterprise Architect baseline mechanism
Change management is one of the most difficult tasks faced by the Project Team. Enterprise Architect allows the change management based on the baseline mechanism. The problem is that it is difficult to generate the change report from EA level. In my work, I use TORMIGO in which I can obtain a rational change report.
The aim of this text is to present the possibility of using the baseline mechanism in reporting the changes of the Enterprise Architect project repository.
1. Preparing baseline for the package
1.1. Select the package for which the baseline is to be created from the project repository in EA, and then from the popup menu (right mouse button) select Package Control -> Manage Baselines or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+B on the selected package.1.2. Create new baseline in the open Manage Baselines window by clicking New Baseline button.
1.3. Enter the version number in New Baseline window, that will help you identify the modelling stage at which the baseline was created. Leave the Include sub-packages checkbox selected to include nested packages.
Figure 1. Adding new baseline.
1.4. Click OK to start creating a new baseline. After successful completion of generation in the Manage baselines window, a newly created element will be displayed (see: Figure 2).2. Preparing change log file on the basis of baseline
/* Enter the changes in a current model so that the content of the log file was not empty. */2.1. Select baseline which is to be compared to the current model in Manage Baselines window, and then click Show Differences button.
Figure 2. Launching the comparison of the current model to baseline.
2.2. Information about the differences between baseline and the current model will be displayed in Compare Utility window. The elements that have changed are displayed in the tree in the left panel. After clicking on the selected element, the properties of the element in the model and in the baseline will be displayed in the right panel. The differences will be highlighted.
Figure 3. Display of differences between the current model and the baseline.
2.3. Click the element for which the change log file is to be prepared in Model Elements tree, and then click Log to XML icon on Compare Utility bar in the upper part of the window.
2.4. Enter the name of the file and its location in Select Export Filename dialog box. Acceptance of the file name will save the change log in XML format on the disk.
3. Preparing change log file on the basis of model export file
3.1. Enter changes in the package in the additional repository, and then export the package to XMI file.3.2. In the main repository, select the package that is to be compared, and then go to Manage baselines window (see item 1.1).
3.3. Select Compare Model To File button in Manage Baselines window and select the file with the exported package from item 3.1.
3.4. The information about the differences between the exported package and a package in the current model will be displayed in Compare Utility window.
3.5. Click the element for which the change log file is to be prepared in Model Elements tree, and then click Log to XML icon on Compare Utility bar in the upper part of the window.
3.6. Enter the name of the file and its location in Select Export Filename dialog box. Acceptance of the file name will save the change log in XML format on the disk.
4. Generating Tormigo Baseline Report
4.1.Launch Tormigo and connect to yours project Repository 4.2. Launch Report Baseline report generation window from Reporting menu and select Report Baseline.4.3. Select change log file using Load log file button in Raport Baseline (Baseline Report) window
Figure 4. Tormigo Baseline report generation window.
4.4. If the structure of the selected log file is correct, Tormigo will display information about the compared package and the elements included in the log file in the Log File Status. Should the structure of the file be not correct, the system will display the appropriate message.
4.5. Click Generate report button to display Report Preview window which will allow you to preview the report, save it to the selected file type and to print the report.
Figure 5. Fragment of the report preview window.
5. Example of the final report with TORMIGO
Figure 6. Tormigo Baseline sample report.
Feel free to download: http://tormigo.modesto.pl/downloads
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About the Author
Michał Wolski
MODESTO (Consultant)Michał Wolski - a consultant and a coach of Modesto Company. He specializes in modelling of business processes and designing web systems as well as those based on SOA. He is a co-author of the book: Modelling of IT systems in UML 2.1 language (ISBN: 978-83-01-15251-2).He is a tireless propagator of using UML language in Agile approach in the scope of modelling of business systems and designing IT systems. Recently his interest is moving toward the enterprise architecture. Michał has also very good, practical knowledge of CASE tools for designing and modelling of IT systems including above all Enterprise Architect.