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Enterprise Architect 16 Menus and Shortcuts – A Detailed Comparison to EA 14 and EA 15
Written by Sparx Systems India -
QEA Files in Sparx EA 16 enables EA SaaS solution for Individuals and Small teams
Written by Nizam Mohamed -
EA16 on Tour
Written by Peter Lieber -
Monitor Real-time Diagram Updates in Enterprise Architect 16.
Written by Sparx Systems India -
Enterprise Architect Version 16 release
Written by sparxsystems -
EA 16 - Resources and Videos for Reference
Written by Nizam-Mohamed -
Quick Reports Through Custom Documentation in Enterprise Architect 16
Written by Sparx Systems India -
Enhanced User Security in Enterprise Architect 16
Written by Sparx Systems India

sparxsystems
Sparx Systems
- 99 Albert Street
- Creswick,
- Victoria
- 3363
- Australia
Tools & Techniques for BABOK® Guide v3... Agile Collaboration
Sparx Systems, together with the International Institute of Business Analysis™ (IIBA®), has announced the public Beta release of a reference model for IIBA's Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide v3), supported by Sparx System's Pro Cloud Server and an MDG Technology within Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect.
Considered as the Ultimate Toolkit for Business Analysts, Sparx System's Tools & Techniques for BABOK Guide v3 has been developed in close conjunction with key stakeholders within the IIBA community, supporting the global business analysis community with improved efficiency and practical real-world modeling examples.
Easily accessible from within the browser of any Internet connected mobile device, the Tools & Techniques for BABOK Guide v3 represents BABOK Guide v3 Knowledge Areas as columns, while each cell represents a specific Task within the Knowledge Area. Enterprise Architect sample models are also contained within the online solution, offering Business Analysts with a comprehensive array of modeling resources to assist in attaining a high level of proficiency in the shortest possible time-frame.
Further information regarding the Enterprise Architect Tools and Techniques for BABOK ® Guide v3, delivered via the Pro Cloud Server collaboration platform or MDG Technology plug-in, plus a wealth of reference materials, is available at the Sparx Systems website: www.sparxsystems.com/babok
Sparx Services North America: A New Service Delivery Initiative
Sparx Systems has responded to an increased demand of sales, training and consultancy services to support North American users of Enterprise Architect.
With more than 600,000 effective users globally including over 80% of Fortune 100 firms, Sparx Systems has seen heightened demand and increased adoption of Enterprise Architect by major corporations in the North American region over the last several years.
Sparx Services North America offers access to quality support for new and existing customers providing sales, training and consulting services from a single regional point of contact.
"Sparx Services North America's proven expertise and close working relationship with Sparx provides organizations and individuals with a rich set of support, training and consulting offerings to ensure maximum return on their investment in modeling and design work using the Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect tool suite." - Geoffrey Sparks, Founder & CEO, Sparx Systems
Located just outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, Sparx Services North America provides optimal provision of quality support to customers via phone toll-free on 1-800-882-6051, and via the website at www.sparxsystems.us
Read the Media Release: Sparx Opens New Office to Service North America
We are Profiling EA Users
Do you know of any EA user deserving of notice?
We are profiling high-achieving EA users to promote the great work being done in our industry. We want to interview these people to find out what their background is, how their role has changed, and the unique challenges they are applying EA to.
Published on the community site, the profiles aim to promote the achievements of individuals and teams and raise a greater sense of community.
A prior example can be read here: http://community.sparxsystems.com/news/979-user-group-attendee-profile-rasheed-amzart
Attached is a copy of our interview questions. Contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to nominate or send a completed interview. All interviews are conducted in writing and participants are offered editing rights over the final profile.
We hope to hear from you.
Best Regards,
The Sparx Systems Community Site
Sparx Systems Pro Cloud Server - Coming Soon
The Pro Cloud Server, coming in Q2 this year will offer enterprises a convenient way to host EA models on their internet or intranet environment, to broaden available access to the model throughout the enterprise.
Sparx Systems' web client WebEA will connect to the Pro Cloud Server to provide a mobile view of Enterprise Architect models in real time, fostering collaboration between model authors and stakeholders and supporting access on the move. Discussions when enabled, will be stored in the model to create a seamless vision of stakeholder feedback visible in both the cloud and desktop environments.
Entry-level creation of requirements, issues, tests and use cases enables stakeholders a more advanced method of contributing to the model. And the creation of watch lists will help keep model authors and stakeholders alike informed of changes to the model.
Sparx Systems is hosting a read-only copy of the EA Example model for users to explore.
URL: demo.sparxpublic.com
Select model: EA Example
Access code: demo
More information as well as a sign-up form for more information is online at: http://www.sparxsystems.com/products/procloudserver
SD Times - How UML makes a DevOps-driven digital transformation possible
In this month's edition of SD Times, reporter Alexandra Weber Morales has interviewed Sparx Systems CEO, Geoffrey Sparks about the prevalence of UML in DevOps culture.
Morales, who originally profiled Sparx Systems over 10 years ago, reconnected again to ask about the Sparx Systems' approach to DevOps, digital transformation and how UML can assist in automating aspects of the delivery pipeline.
'UML is the established standard for software modeling - anyone sketching a simple use case is modeling in UML.'
- Geoffrey Sparks
The article can be read in its entirety at: http://sdtimes.com/uml-makes-devops-driven-digital-transformation-possible
The interview is also published in the March edition of SD Times.
Enterprise Architect identified for Agile Development and DevOps: SD Times In-depth Feature
Regular contributor to SD Times, Lisa Morgan, has published an in-depth piece titled 'Navigating the endless ALM river', she investigates alternative solutions to some of the premium offerings within the marketplace.
Lisa investigates the latest thinking within this space, gathering insight from senior subject matter experts, who describe contemporary thinking in this fast-paced sector.
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is included within a list of highly-valued software solutions that facilitate continuous delivery, deployment and integration processes.
We encourage you to read the full article at the SD Times website.
2017 European EA Users Group: London May 18-19
The EA User Group Committee, consisting of a number of dedicated Sparx Global Partners, have set dates for the next European EA User Group event!
What? The next European EAUG event
When? Thursday 18th and Friday 19th May 2017
Where? Code Node, LONDON, EC2M 7BT
Thank you for all who responded to our recent survey. The results were clear – you wanted a 2 day event, including training, to be held in a major European city with good transport links.
You spoke, and we listened…
AGENDA/PLAN:
- Thursday 18th May, 9am-5pm: an EA training day, with a small number of in-depth sessions led by approved EA training partners. Full details to be published shortly. Note: Training numbers will be limited.
- Thursday 6pm onwards: an evening networking event
- Friday 19th May: a ‘traditional’ EAUG event day - including shorter presentations, case studies and user stories
TICKETS:
£550 - To join us for the full 2 day event.
£75 - To join us on Friday only.
CALL TO ACTION:
- Attendees - Save the Date(s)
- Speakers - Send us your presentation proposals for case studies/user stories
- Sponsors - There are Sponsorship opportunities. Please contact us for more information.
Keep up to date about EA User Group events, register at the EAUG website today!
Reader's Choice Award Recognizes Sparx Systems For Software Architecture
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect has been honored with a Silver medal for Software Architecture excellence in this year's Visual Studio Reader's Choice Award.
This follows on from winning a Bronze award in 2015 for outstanding solutions in the Software Design, Frameworks, and Modeling Tools category.
"For Sparx to place in the tight Software Architecture solutions category means readers are paying attention. It can only mean good things in the future for this builder of model-driven software development."
- Michael Domingo, Editor in Chief, Visual Studio Magazine
The Reader's Choice Award has been conducted by Visual Studio Magazine for 23 years, with winners selected from a pool of over 400 product and sevices within 36 categories.
A media announcement has been released by Sparx Systems, please visit the company News Room for more.
For more details about the Reader's Choice Award, please visit the Visual Studio Magazine website.
Enterprise Architect 'Best In Show': 2016 SD Times 100
Popular software development publication, SD Times, has awarded Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect 'Best In Show in Software Development', a prestigious list of top 100 software solution providers for 2016.
SD Times identified vendors and related products who are 'Blazing Their Own Trail', Sparx Systems was listed within the ALM & Development Tools category.
The editorial team at SD Times highlighted the importance of the category: "Application life-cycle management needs sound methods coupled with up-to-date tools and platforms for requirements so that teams know what to do and when to do it by. These companies helped developers stick to the plan and avoid falling behind in 2016."
To read more about the SD Times 100 honors, please visit the SD Times website.
Requirements for Digital Transformation
Requirements are fundamentally important as they are about building the right system.
Yet the failure of requirements is the primary cause of project failure.
How many times do we forget passwords AND user names? This is a clear example of the risk associated with the reliability of the human memory and associated human error. Let's consider the management of the myriad detail accumulated throughout the requirements planning process and the steps of Eliciting, Documenting, Analysing and Communicating. Oh, and let's not forget Tracking, Validating and Verifying!
So spare a thought for the Business Analyst, whose whole focus is on capturing requirements, to ensure successful project outcomes. Or to put it another way, the task of translating the needs, wants and expectations, of all user stakeholders, into technical language for the developers and others, to ensure that they - the users - are are going to get the functionality, that they need, want and expect from a system. This is not a petty task and it can take months. Meanwhile, there is the probability, due to complexity, that not all of the requirements are going to be addressed because of a number of factors, not least, their having been lost or forgotten.
However if effectively managed, requirements identification and supporting traceability improves the overall project outcome, simply because time will be saved, less money will be spent, and most importantly, the customer will be happier.
The Requirements management process has seen much change in the past 20 years and two of the most obvious are the involvement of the customer in all phases of the process and that the requirements process itself is now dynamically linked into an agile culture of continuous integration and delivery. The increase in software defined business, is driving the growth and importance of application delivery within encumbent enterprise and with ever more startups disrupting their industries, enterprise needs greater levels of automation to compete and to deliver quality, quicker than competitors.
In the past Requirements were captured in hand written paper documents, which in time, were augmented with spreadsheets and word documents. The rigour of the process left space for improvement. Today, requirements associated material is held in a central repository and updates are visible to all stakeholders. Enterprise Architect can capture all of the different information that records requirements information, be it from Word, Excel, Visio, handwritten notes, video or audio.
In the past Requirements was an isolated process that had built in “wait” or handover periods before being consumed by the other phases of the project life cycle. Today these gaps are closed with automation and requirements are integrated across the development life cycle, with many other functions. The end result is less time to delivery.
Organisational cultures of resistance to change, identified by a bulwark of divisional and departmental silos and a reluctance to co-operate, increased the risk of failure for the change process. Today, technology based collaborative platforms are increasingly being adopted as they are inclusive, breaking open silos, empowering stakeholders and drawing them together.
The progress of development projects lacked transparency for most key stakeholders, right to the point when business took delivery. Whatever visibility the stakeholders had, was gathered from assumptions, rather than from objective data. Today, key stakeholders form an integral part of the development team and have access to progress charts and dashboard metrics.
In the past, the management of shareholder supported organisations held tightly to the overarching goal of ensuring change was minimised or avoided, so as to maintain the value of their shares. Today the digital imperative, as opposed to the business imperative, says be prepared to change, or risk oblivion.
These examples are a reflection of the changes in the Requirements Management process, which in the development model of today, supports iterative requirements gathering and continuous delivery of software. It has become an Agile practice approach, being adopted to address the challenge of digital transformation. This collaborative, iteration based business lifecycle, between requirements and stakeholders, has given rise to DevOps, a strategy for managing continuous change.
Enterprise Architect is unique in its ability to support Requirements throughout the development lifecycle and to deliver the benefits of the Agile practice approach. Requirements can be defined in the model, or imported from other tools including Visio.
Recently, through agreement with IIBA, Sparx Systems is in the process of developing the Enterprise Architect Guide to BABOK Implementation. Through the power of this collaborative, visual modeling platform, the extension provides the Business Analyst with a fully augmented BABOK user experience.
On March 29, 2017, the public Beta launch of Tools & Techniques for BABOK Guide v3 was announced - please visit the Sparx Systems website for more details.