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 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  

Enterprise Architect User Group

London 2017; 18th - 19th May

The London

2017 meeting of the Enterprise Architect User Group sees a shakeup to the agenda in the form of an additional day being added to the roster. In additional to the traditional presentation day of User Stories, How to's etc the extra day added to the event is taking the form of a training day.

The training day adds to the event a selection of six, three hour training sessions on a variety of subjects from BPMN to TOGAF and Model Curation.

Location

Code Node, 10 South Place, London, EC2M 7BT

Get Directions

Agenda; Thursday 18th May

You can find information on these training sessions over at the EA User Group website.

Agenda; Friday 19th May

You can find a synopsis for each of these presentations over on the EA User Group website.

How to buy your tickets...

Tickets for the event are available directly from the EA User Group website and are priced as follows:

• Full two day event ticket; £550.00 +Vat
• Friday only ticket; £75.00 +Vat

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

We recently published Panorama 360 Insurance and Wealth Management Enterprise Business Architecture Framework as a book (456 pages) which is globally available on Amazon. It covers all functional  (Capabilities) and informational aspects of the industry. This enterprise business model is also available on Sparx Enterprise Architect.

Here is a link to an article that was published by Insurance Innovation Reporter's Anthony R. O'Donnell relative to the value of Panorama 360.

http://iireporter.com/panorama-360-insurance-enterprise-business-model-qa-with-author-pierre-gagne/

For any questions on the Panorama 360 Enterprise Business Model and the Sparx Enterprise Architect version, contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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.

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. 

Above all else one of the most recurring questions Dunstan Thomas Consulting has encountered from clients over the years is "How do we use the Relationship Matrix?"

With that in mind we've got a short clip on how you can start effectively putting the Relationship Matrix into use for yourself...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miiWN5PBuk0&t=30s

Sam Nice
Online Training, Marketing & Product Specialist
Dunstan Thomas Consulting
@DTUML 

ArchiMate 3.0

by Phil Chudley, Principal Consultant at Dunstan Thomas Consulting

  The Open Group released the official specification of ArchiMate 3.0 in June 2016, and this new specification is supported in Enterprise Architect version 13. This article summarises the new features and changes within ArchiMate 3.0 and provides an example of how to migrate an existing ArchiMate 2.0 model to ArchiMate 3.0 model using Enterprise Architect v.13.

Summary of Changes

The following is a summary of the changes made within ArchiMate 3.0:

• Motivation Extension;
  • New element for modelling Outcomes.
  • New set of Strategy Elements, Resource, Capability, Course of Action.
• Business Layer;
  • Representation of the Contract element modified so as to be different from the Business Object Element.
  • Location element removed (although Enterprise Architect has re-located this element to the Technology Layer – Physical Extension).
• Application Layer;
  • Two new elements added, Application Process and Application Event
• Technology layer;
  • Elements called Infrastructure in ArchiMate 2.0 are now called Technology in ArchiMate 3.0.
  • Four new elements added, Technology Process, Technology Interaction, Technology Event and Technology Collaboration.
  • New set of Physical Elements, Equipment, Facility, Distribution Network and Material. These elements are known as the Physical Extension.
• Implementation and Migration Extension;
  • One new element added, Implementation Event.
• Relationships;
  • Representation of Assignment modified to have a directional arrow.
  • Bi-directional Access relationship added.
  • Plus (positive) and Minus (negative) symbols added to Influence Relationship.
  • New relationship, Serving.

Detail of Changes

The following tables provided an example of the changes for each of the sections listed in the Summary of Changes above.

Motivation Extension

Element	Definition	Notation
Outcome	An end result that has been achieved.
Resource	An asset owned or controlled by an individual or organisation.
Capability	An ability that an active structure element, such as an organisation, person, or system possesses.
Course of Action	An approach or plan for configuring some capabilities and resources of the enterprise, undertaken to achieve a goal.

Business Layer

Element	Definition	Notation
Contract	A formal or informal specification of an agreement between a provided and consumer that specifies the rights and obligations associated with a product.

Application Layer

Element	Definition	Notation
Application Process	A sequence of application behaviours that achieves a specific outcome.
Application Event	An application behaviour element that denotes a state change.

Technology Layer

Element	Definition	Notation
Technology Collaboration	An aggregate of two or more nodes that work together to perform collective technology behaviour.
Technology Process	A sequence of technology behaviours that achieves a specific outcome.
Technology Event	A technology behaviour element that denotes a state of change.
Technology Interaction	A unit of collective technology behaviour performed by (a collaboration of) two or more nodes.
Equipment	One or more physical machines, tools, or instruments that can create, use, store, move, or transform materials.
Facility	A physical structure or environment.
Distribution Network	A physical network used to transport materials or energy.
Material	Tangible physical matter or physical elements.

Implementation & Migration Extension

Element	Definition	Notation
Implementation Event	A behaviour element that denotes a change of state related to an implementation or migration.

Relationships

Element	Definition	Notation
Assignment	Expresses the allocation of responsibility, performance of behaviour, or execution.
Serving	Models that an element provides its functionality to another element.
Access	Models the ability of behaviour and active structure elements to observe or act upon passive structure elements.
Influence	Models that an element affects the implementation or achievement of some motivation element.

Implications to existing ArchiMate models

If an organisation has modelled their Enterprise Architecture using Enterprise Architect and ArchiMate 2, and are now using Version 13 of Enterprise Architect, they have two courses of action:

1. Continue to model using ArchiMate 2.0. In this case no action is required either for Enterprise Architect or the model repository. An organisation would continue to model using ArchiMate 2.0 if they do not wish to make use of any of the new features in ArchiMate 3.0.
2. Migrate their existing ArchiMate 2.0 model to ArchiMate 3.0, and then continue to model using ArchiMate 3.0. An organisation would continue to model using ArchiMate 2.0 if they wish to make use of any of the new features in ArchiMate 3.0.

My own personal opinion is that an organisation should consider moving to Enterprise Architect version 13 (mainly due its new feature of “Time Aware Modelling”) and ArchiMate 3.0. One of the main reasons, is due to inherent ambiguity (due to the lack of direction indication) in the assigns relationship in ArchiMate 2.0, which has been eliminated in ArchiMate 3.0 by making the assigns relationship directional.

Migrating an ArchiMate 2.0 model to ArchiMate 3.0

Enterprise Architect version 13 provides a migration script for this purpose. The following steps are used to perform the migration:

1. Take a backup copy of the existing model repository.
2. Using the Configure | Manage Technology ribbon, ensure that both ArchiMate 2.0 and ArchiMate 3.0 MDG technologies are enabled.
3. Using the Code | Scripting ribbon, make the scripting window visible:
   
4. Select the topmost package (or view) that contains the model to migrate:
   
5. Select the script Migrate ArchiMate 2 to ArchiMate 3 in the scripting window.
6. Right-click and select Run Script from the menu.
7. The progress of the migration, together with any errors / warnings will be displayed in the system output window.
8. Review the diagrams (you may have to tidy some of the relationships).
9. Turn off the MDG ArchiMate 2.0 using the Configure | Manage Technology ribbon.

NOTE: It appears that composition relationships are NOT HIDDEN, when using nested structures in ArchiMate 3.0. I suspect this is an Enterprise Architect version 13 issue. This is likely to be fixed and should not deter migration, as these relationships can always be hidden using the Visible Relations function in Enterprise Architect. (Layout | Manage ribbon and select Show and Hide Relationships… from the menu).

Phil Chudley
Principal Consultant
Dunstan Thomas Consulting
@SparxEAGuru

You'll find lots of useful Enterprise Architect videos on our YouTube Channel.