Introduction

Specification Manager introduced in Enterprise Architect 11, provides a simple document view for editing and maintaining model elements in Enterprise Architect. Specification Manager's Word Processor like interface makes it easier for the key stake holders and business users to contribute and maintain the model elements.

This document intends to peek into the features of Specification Manager and how its combination with other Enterprise Architect's features and plugins makes Enterprise Architect a powerful Application Life Cycle Modeling tool, especially in the area of Requirements and Use Case management.

The disruptive innovations like Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud are forcing the organizations to change their rigid operations and process to sustain their business. Organizations are looking to embrace the Automated Application Lifecycle Management tools to minimize the risks caused by these innovations.

However most of the organizations existing artifacts are stored in the Word processors and they face the below challenges while embracing the tools.

Top reasons that deter any organization/end user from embracing an ALM/Modeling/Requirements Management tools are 

1. Challenge of Migrating the existing documents in the Word Processors to the Tools
2. Users reluctance to move away from the word processor environment which they are comfortable with
3. Learning Curve for the end users to familiarize themselves with the tools.

 It is imperative that any ALM / Modeling / Requirement Management tools should have the following features to be more successful 

1. Ability to import the artefacts from the existing word processors
2. Ability to export the EA elements back in the form Word processors/html for wider circulation
3. Provide an Interface similar to the word processors for ease of use 

The below table list the key features Sparx Enterprise Architect that helps organizations to address the above challenges

 Key Features of Specification Manager

 Word Processor like Interface

View and Edit Requirements or other element types in a view that looks like a document

The interface enables the

• Users to modify the elements properties and Metadata.
• The Notes and the Requirement Names can be modified like a word processor.

Create New Elements using the interface

Windows Explorer like UI for browsing the Model Elements

Filter Elements in the package as per your convenience

Search for Elements that need to edited or reviewed

View the associated Details of the elements

• Linked documents
• Discussions

· Relationships to other elements

• Resource allocations
• Maintenance items
• Files
• Test
• Risks

Each indicator icon can be double-clicked to take you to that information 

Comprehensive Review Features

Create Review Document and View Associated Review Documents

Integrated with Team Review

Initiate Element Discussions for reviewing in a collaborated environment

Manage Traceability and Relationship Matrix

• See exactly which Relationship Matrix profiles exist for that package and open them
• Create new Relationship Matrix profiles for the elements you are viewing quickly and easily
• See the available Relationship Matrix profiles for visible packages

Version Control and Documentation

Manage Package Baseline

View Audit Trial

Generate Docx, PDF and RTF Documents

Print Documents

Publish HTML Report

With the introduction of Specification Manager , Enterprise Architect will satisfy the needs of the Business User who is looking for a familiar word processor like interface and the Corporates need for a dynamic Application Management Tool which with live traceability which can be used in a distributed environment.

EAWordImporter

EA Word Importer is a free plugin that lets you import your requirements, Use Cases and other information from your Word documents into Enterprise Architect as model elements.

Visit the previous Community Blog or visit www.eawordimporter.com for details.

Power of Enterprise Architect combined with Specification Manager and EA Word Importer

The below diagram depicts a typical life cycle of Requirements and Use cases flow using Enterprise Architect where Requirements and Use cases are already created in Word Processors.

Conclusion

With the introduction of Specification Manager and EAWordImporter , Enterprise Architect offers the power of comprehensive Requirements Management tool at a very competitive price.

As practicing Enterprise Architect consultants, we have the opportunity to interact with various corporates for training, consulting and providing Enterprise Architect demonstrations. We encounter the following standard queries:

“We have lots of Requirements and Use Cases in Microsoft Word ™ documents. Can we import them into Enterprise Architect “?

“Can our Business Analysts continue to work in Microsoft Word™ which they are familiar with and then have the artifacts imported into EA?

These queries highlighted the need for a standard Word importer that helps the Enterprise Architect users to

Import the existing Requirements and Use Case Models in Microsoft Word ™ format into Enterprise Architect as elements.

Enable the Business Analysts to work with the Microsoft Word Documents™ and still leverage the power of Enterprise Architect for Traceability, Impact analysis, Version control and much more……

EAWI (Enterprise Architect Word Importer) is here to address the above challenges.

*EA Word Importer lets you import your requirements, Use Cases and other information from your Word documents into Enterprise Architect as model elements.*

      What do we solve?

How does it work?

Check out the listing on the Sparx Systems website:
 
http://www.sparxsystems.com/products/3rdparty.html#WordImporter

or Visit:

www.eamwordimporter.com

Tagged Values are a convenient way of adding additional information to an element, beyond what is directly supported by Enterprise Architect.

Enterprise Architect defines a Tagged Value Type, which constrains the possible values of a tag and can specify how a value is assigned to the tag.

This user guide provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to create various predefined tagged Values and add them to an Enterprise Architect element.

Click here to read the Tutorial Document.

A “Business Analysis Survey “was conducted by Sparx Systems (India), in collaboration  with BA Convention and IIBA™  at Bangalore , India.

The outcome of the survey revealed some interesting insights about the Business Analysis in India, which is garnering increasing importance in the realms of the Indian IT industry.

Though it was an elaborate survey which covered various aspects of business analysis in India, the below responses are more relevant to this EA user community

• Requirements gathering and Use Cases writing are still the primary tasks assigned to Business Analysts

• 75 % of the participants agree that one third of the project efforts are spent on corrections or repetitions

• 80 % of the participants advocated the usage of Requirements Management and Business Modelling tools improve the quality of projects

• 62 % of the respondents felt that initial upfront cost involved in procuring and training of modelling tools act as a deterrent

This is a strong indicator that the Business Analysts and organizations are looking for a Cost effective , Easy to Learn and Comprehensive tool to address their needs.

Enterprise Architect is the potential tool to address the above demands with

Rich Feature Set

Enterprise Architect’s Requirements Management, Use Case Modelling, Business Process Modelling, End to End Traceability and Project Management capabilities helps organizations to eliminate usage of multiple tools.

Enterprise Architect 11 provides a number of features including the Specification Manager, Charts and Dashboards, Enhanced Docx documentation, OSLC support and much, much more.  Each of these features will address the needs of the Business Analysts.

Easy to use:

The intuitive IDE of Enterprise Architect enables ease of Use and quick learning, even for the non-technical associates.

Cost Effective:

Compared to other traditional Business Modelling tools, Enterprise Architect is less expensive and can address the cost concerns of Business Analysts.

With its rich feature set, ease of use and cost effective advantage, Enterprise Architect is the right choice for the Global Organizations who have their extended presence in India through outsourcing or subsidiaries.

Please click here for the details of the survey.