Displaying items by tag: sparx systems

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ArchiMate is an industry standard notation developed by The Open Group for the graphical modelling of enterprise architectures. The notation has evolved to be fully aligned with TOGAF. Many companies recognise the value of these architectural models to understand the dependencies between their people, processes, applications, data and hardware. Using ArchiMate allows them to integrate their business and IT strategies.

This webinar will demonstrate how Enterprise Architect can be used to create ArchiMate models and viewpoints to understand, document and communicate knowledge of the enterprise architecture. The webinar will:

• Explain the purpose of ArchiMate and how it supports TOGAF
• Show how to model business organisation, processes and products using ArchiMate business layer viewpoints
• Illustrate an application landscape and explore dependencies using ArchiMate application layer viewpoints
• Show how to catalogue company infrastructure (hardware, system software and networks) using ArchiMate technology layer viewpoints
• Demonstrate how to identify stakeholders, drivers, goals and requirements using the ArchiMate motivation extension

To learn more about using ArchiMate within Enterprise Architect, please register for this webinar today.

Guest Presenter: Gillian Adens, Director of Hippo Software.

Sparx Systems Honoured for Innovation and Industry Leadership

The editors of SD Times identified the industry’s top leaders, innovators and influencers, in separate industry segments. Some companies lead in one category, others in more than one. In each category, one company has been spotlighted as a star deserving of special notice.

When choosing the SD Times 100, we carefully considered each company’s offerings and reputation. We also listened for the “buzz”—how much attention and conversation we’ve heard around the company and its products and technologies—as a sign of leadership within the industry.The SD Times 100 looked for companies that have determined a direction that developers followed. Did the company set the industry agenda? Did its products and services advance the software development art? Were its competitors nervously tracking its moves? Were programmers anxiously awaiting its developments? Those qualities mark a leader.Subjective? Of course. But leadership and innovation can’t be measured by stock valuations or analyst reports. The SD Times 100 represents what we believe to be the best of the best.

“The software development industry has always been competitive, but never more so given the innovation we’re seeing in so many spaces, including mobile, cloud, SaaS, DevOps/ALM, developer tools, quality assurance and Big Data,” said David Rubinstein, editor-in-chief of BZ Media's SD Times. “For the 2014 SD Times 100, our editors carefully considered each nominee’s products and services, thought leadership and reputation. Thanks to companies like Sparx Systems, the future for software development is very bright!”

For more information, please read the corresponding press release.

Not since Y2K, has there been tumult of anticipation and apprehension about the impact of technology change that is predicted by the Nexus of Forces (Cloud, Social, Mobile and Big Data).

At the turn of the millennium, the perceived threat was enough for governments to take action before the event, which serendipitously strengthened the existing computer infrastructure. The “millennium bug” crisis created an opportunity to get rid of antiquated systems and modernise and according to an IDC report from 2006 the global cost of remediation was $308 billion (or $422B adjusted for inflation).

A programming bug and a poor understanding of process and outcomes caused the millennium crisis and factors which have relevance today. Together with an absence of standardised processes and ad-hoc decision making, (no repositories or collaboration tools) a lack of adherence to programming standards, project expedience, un-coordinated codebase modifications and uncompleted changes are some of the many factors that lead to technical debt or IT debt. In 2010 Gartner estimated “global 'IT Debt' to be $500 Billion with potential to grow to $1 Trillion by 2015”.

Applications drive the business and management makes decisions based on these applications, many of which were built to meet the needs of discreet business areas at a time when the idea of holistic management of applications as a portfolio was uncommon. With the need to create a single view of the customer from all parts of the enterprise the application silos must now be addressed. However, enterprise will continue to rely on those applications and adapt them to meet the nexus of forces.

The next period of uncertainty presents global industry with risk and opportunity in equal measure and just as with the response to Y2K, the forces of change can be harnessed to drive the digital workplace and promote workplace agility. If not maintained applications will eventually cause problems that can threaten the hard won competitive advantage of an organization and the ability to succeed through periods of dramatic change.

If there was ever a clear measure of change since the beginning of the 21^st century one must only look at the growth of the forces in the digital convergence. In 1999, the total amount of data globally was 1.5 Exabytes, in 2010, 1.2Zb (12000 Eb) and will reach 7.9Zb in 2015. There were 300 million mobile phone subscribers in 1999 and today there are more than 7 billion. In 1999 there were 248 million Internet subscribers and today there are 3 billion. Such exponential growth has an impact on enterprise architecture, creating a demand for visual tools that are capable of engaging the whole organisation. Through the innovative use of technology, the enterprise can become a disrupting influence rather than be subjected to disrupting influences, while using the tide of digital change to reinvent itself.

The adoption of standards based tools that provide the templates and frameworks to reduce risk and increase efficiency is a major step towards technical debt reduction. The automation of processes will provide the time savings demanded by the agile enterprise while improving data quality. This in turn will reduce costs, create savings and support better informed investments, improved decision making and the fostering of innovation. The digital future requires both speed and agility while nurturing and growing organizational innovation.

Standards codify the best practices of an industry, with the built in adaptability and flexibility that is informed by having an eye to the future. In situations where compliance is mandated or where there is uncertainty, such as that generated by digital convergence, standards are designed to provide assurance and guidance.

Enterprise Architect supports the collaborative visualisation to remediate the software legacy and take control of the software development for evolving systems. This award winning, repository based technology, which is built on open standards, offers a number of automated best practices that can be adopted to shrink technical debt, while supporting the diverse viewpoints of stakeholders, geographically distributed throughout the enterprise. A powerful low cost solution to integrate critical information legacy with future systems design.

As the impact from the digital industrial economy takes effect, it will drive the need for enterprise architects to digitally renew the business. In a connected world, there is no place for silos, and the extent of connectivity determines levels of inclusion in the digital economy, the quality of service/product and resulting customer loyalty.

Sparx Systems supports those enterprise architects who are navigating business enterprise and facilitating digital business renewal, through rapid and unprecedented change.

Optimised service networks encourage closer consumer relationships, which in turn promote improved business relationships, while providing value added competitive barriers. Service differentiation will come from those organisations that succeed in integrating digital technologies to deliver consumers a unique and ongoing experience.

To ensure maximum customer retention and growth, utilities and telecommunications rely heavily on geospatial information systems, mobile workforce applications and communications management, for the construction, operation, maintenance and management of critical network systems.

In 1999 the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) identified electrification as the first of the 20 greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century and the Smartgrid - which is driving modernisation of the electricity grid - became federal policy, with the passage of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007

The adoption of smart metering capabilities and the creation of new grid infrastructures are extending transmission and distribution systems in ways, which until recently, were not considered in the realm of the possible. Enterprise Architect is used to maintain the Common Information Model (CIM) - Read More Here

But, now this extension is connecting new or previously siloed networks, in an interoperable, communications model. This Smartgrid is a subset of a global tissue of smart connected devices called the Internet of Things (IoT). See http://www.iot-a.eu/public

The ability to automatically transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction is a scenario that suggests an explosion of connections. Providing unique identifiers with such capability, to objects, animals and people will push the installed base of connected things to 212 billion by 2020 according to IDC.

While the functionality of the Internet is based on open and interoperable standards, enabling interoperability and global accessibility the Internet of Things is for most part, a heterogeneous world of silos where standards for scalability, governance and security are yet to be developed.

The explosion of the Internet of Things will contribute to the generation of data volumes, which combined with other sources is referred to as Big Data and which threaten to outstrip our ability to deal with it while sowing new data silos. Without support from collaborative technologies that support highly automated processes, the time required make this data re-usable is impractical.

According to a 2012 Whitepaper by Oracle, An Architects Guide to Big Data, architects are expected to provide a fast, reliable path to business adoption while embracing new technologies and techniques are always challenging. These technologies and techniques should then be deployed to “share knowledge, establish standards, and to manage best practices”.

At a time when the resource “bandwidth” of the enterprise architect is being squeezed under the pressure of tasks and responsibilities, the pressure can be reduced through collaboration – the positive difference between the sum of the parts and the whole!

An affordable shared platform, supporting a highly scaleable, networked collaboration solution, is necessary. With the recent release of Enterprise Architect 11 Sparx Systems has provided several features to address this issue. The Cloud Service, Reusable Asset Service (RAS) and OSLC are a trinity of tools, which when used together, provide a powerful solution.

The Sparx Systems Cloud Services application provides a convenient mechanism for hosting data models while providing easy access to all team members, external customers and consultants, anywhere around the world.

The implementation of the RAS standard within Enterprise Architect provides a shared remote registry, accessible via a Cloud Service connection that will allow organizations to securely share information between one another in a standardised environment. Users can view the information in a single, consolidated virtual registry-repository, while retaining local control over their own registry-repositories, while modellers can easily and conveniently distribute or download data resources including reusable model structures, information, corporate directives or standards. http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/products/ea/cloud-trial.html

Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC), makes it easier for different tools to work together and users can Create, Read, Update and Delete model information such as requirements. A video can be accessed here http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/products/ea/11/index.html

Sparx Systems has partnered with CSIRO to support the ongoing development of model registry features and functionality for Sparx's Enterprise Architect UML modelling tool. http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/press/articles/CSIRO-Collaboration.html

Enterprise Architect 11 will be a ground breaking, major release of Sparx Systems' award-winning modeling platform. With so many exciting enhancements in version 11, we want you to see why this release makes your modeling more productive than ever!

Join Tom O'Reilly and Ben Constable from Sparx Systems as they preview the release highlights:

• New tools that help business analysts work faster.
• Enhanced analysis and design tools for software and systems engineers.
• Cloud-based model deployment, superior diagramming, new and updated profiles and more.

Two live sessions will be conducted to accommodate attendees in different time zones on the 15th and 16th of April.

We invite you to register now:
www.sparxsystems.com/webinar

If you are considering Enterprise Architect or you are a first time user, this webinar is for you.

Discover the visual power of the modeling environment as we walk you through the basics, show you tips and tricks that will speed up the modeling process and share useful resources to help in your daily modelling activities. Discover how you can rapidly access the modeling power of Enterprise Architect and have your questions answered live, by a product expert.

Sparx Systems is proud to announce this new initiative to help Enterprise Architect users.  If you have recently downloaded the Trial or are new to Enterprise Architect, we would encourage you to register Today.

http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/webinar/introduction.html

In the rapidly changing world of aviation, standards are the measure by which successful transition from the norm to the new can be made. Over 60 years, IATA has developed the commercial standards that built a global industry and its mission is to represent, lead and serve the airline industry. With a membership made up of 240 airlines, among them the world's leading passenger and cargo airlines, IATA represents 84% of total air traffic.

Passenger numbers topped the 3 billion mark in 2013 for the first time, with the value of goods carried as air cargo totalling one third of world trade.
Passenger and Airport Data Interchange Standards Board - or PADIS is a set of working groups responsible for the maintenance of technical specifications such as XML schemas in support of various business standards maintained by IT experts who can turn business standards into precise technical specifications that systems need to communicate.

It is against this industry backdrop that IATA has chosen Enterprise Architect to build the Aviation Industry Data model. The data model will enable interoperability across the entire spectrum of services providers and agents, who work with airlines to provide a seamless travel experience.

For more information, please read the official press release.

The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is the industry's leading enterprise architecture framework. TOGAF contains numerous best practices and a proven method for establishing an architecture capability and developing architecture content. This webinar will show you how to use Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect to implement a TOGAF-based Architecture Repository, including: the Architecture Landscape, Standards Information Base, Reference Library, and Architecture Metamodel.

Mr. Chris Armstrong, President of Armstrong Process Group, Inc., is an internationally recognized thought leader in enterprise architecture, formal modeling, process improvement, systems and software engineering, requirements management, and agile development. Mr. Armstrong represents APG at The Open Group, the Object Management Group and the Eclipse Foundation.

Mr. Armstrong is a co-chair of the TOGAF Certification Standing Committee (CSC) and EA Capability Improvement project, was a significant contributor to TOGAF 9, and is contributing to the next version of TOGAF currently under development. Mr. Armstrong is certified in TOGAF, ArchiMate, Open FAIR, UML, and SysML.

The webinar will be held on the 19th and 20th of March.  Check the registration page below for local times.

For more information, please use our Webinar Registration Page.

The proliferation of location based services in banking, finance, energy, health, entertainment and many other industries, makes geographic data more valuable than ever! To store and manage geographic data, many organizations rely on Esri's ArcGIS geodatabase.

How can you use state-of-the-art modeling tools to design and document these geodatabases? How do you link and trace existing geodatabases with other parts of your corporate model? Senior Analyst at Sparx Systems, Ben Constable, will answer these questions and demonstrate the design of an ArcGIS geodatabase in Enterprise Architect.

Two live sessions will be conducted to accommodate attendees in different time zones on the 25th and 26th of February.

We invite you to register now:
www.sparxsystems.com/webinar

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.