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Enterprise Architecture using Prolaborate

A Case study driven illustration of Enterprise Architecture Capabilities in Prolaborate

The CEO of a leading utility firm intends to leverage an EA tool, to help them with the planning and decision-making required for his digital transformation strategy.

The organization identified three use cases as its primary needs for an EA tool, this article will give an high level overview of how Prolaborate helps them realize the use cases.

Use Case 1 – Smarter Decision Making

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect tool is populated by architects, analysts and other users across the organization. The information represents the length and breadth of the architecture landscape using industry standards as TOGAF or ArchiMate or Zachman framework.

However for maximizing the real value of Architecture practice is possible only when the broader organization) can use the information collaboratively on a regular basis for analysis and decision support that real value is realized.

Use Case 2 –innovation Through Collaboration

Ability to innovate is key for successful digital transformation. To enable innovation the teams must evaluate the current state and emerging technologies.  Prolaborate enables innovation with a structured yet flexible and iterative collaboration and review capability.

Prolaborate enables a state-of-art platform to enable seamless collaboration between the Architecture team, strategy team, innovation team, product team, and infrastructure team.

Use Case 3 – Application Portfolio Management

The CEO was also recommended that there are several duplications of IT assets as a result of several mergers and acquisitions.  To enable a lean, agile organization, the CEO has set his priority to clean up duplicate IT assets.

Prolaborate lets architects create views that will allow the organization to gain the ability to make more conscious investment choices for application landscape to reduce complexity. The Prolaborate views would allow applications with overlapping functionalities to be visible, outdated applications identified, strategic importance assessed, to foster teams to manage applications seamlessly.

Explore the incredible advancements in Enterprise Architecture views in Prolaborate, visualize an organizations IT landscape from Strategy to Implementation. Check out the New and improved capabilities of Prolaborate to perform Value chain analysis, Capability alignment, Application Portfolio Management, Process Optimization to facilitate rapid decisions, quickly.

In this webinar, we'll show you how to:

• Effective Enterprise Architecture using Prolaborate – creating views ranging from Vision and Objectives tracking down to Applications and Servers.
• Learn new utilities to simplify analysis – Relationship Matrix, Spreadsheet interface, Landscape Diagrams.
• Enhanced Charts and Reporting - Heatmaps, Treemaps, Burst charts, Bubble charts etc to efficiently leverage Architecture Data.

For more information and registration please visit https://sparxsystems.com/resources/webinar/sparxservices/prolaborate1909/index.html/index.html

Or Click Register Now. To know more about Prolaborate or request a demo please visit https://prolaborate.sparxsystems.com 

Setting Up the Pro Cloud Server for Enterprise Architect

A step-by-step guide to installing and configuring the Pro Cloud Server. Easily deploy a web and mobile enabled collaboration platform for Enterprise Architect, connecting team members and clients with a live, web-based view of your model – all within your own cloud environment. 

Learn more and register Today!

Requirements in Context

Thursday, September 13th, 2018 at 10:00 AM Pacific (1:00 PM Eastern)

Register: https://www.modernanalyst.com/Webinars/tabid/207/ID/5074/Requirements-in-Context.aspx

Scott Ambler, a key founder of the Agile movement accurately stated:
"If a requirement was misunderstood, all modeling decisions based on that requirement are invalid,

the code written is also in question, and the testing efforts are now verifying the application under the wrong conditions".

Topics covered include:

• Requirements across the entire landscape
• The semantics of Requirements
• Reuse Requirements
• Requirements traceability
• Requirements Management tools

Featured Speaker: Ramsay Millar, Business Architect

This webinar will show you how to make the most of Dynamic Documents to create simple, yet effective reports.The 'Dynamic Document' tab of the Document Window helps you to instantly generate a document on a selected element, using one of a range of templates. A style template consists of one or more command lines, each of which defines an element type (or all element types) and the document template to apply to the generated document.

In this LIVE webinar session, you will learn how to:

• Create your own style templates and document templates
• Understand how selectors and style templates work
• Use the Template editor to create rich and engaging document templates

We are trialling a new webinar technology based on YouTube Live streaming.

Visit Webinar Page - Watch live or catch up later!

YouTube Live Stream Webinar: Enterprise Architect 13 Highlights, Part 2

In our second installment of the Enterprise Architect 13 release series, we delve into some of the new productivity tools introduced in this major milestone release.

In this LIVE webinar session, you will learn how to:

• Generate Dynamic Documents based on a selected Element
• Undertake Parametric Simulation using SysML and OpenModelica
• Publish models directly to Joomla!

We are trialling a new webinar technology based on YouTube Live streaming.

To access the webinar, simply visit and bookmark the webinar link below and return at your scheduled time.

Watch Now: Enterprise Architect 13 Highlights Webinar - Part 2

Enterprise Architect 12 is a major milestone release of Sparx Systems' award-winning modeling platform. Significant user interface enhancements make it easier to navigate the model, access element properties and create a personalized look and feel. Hundreds of updates and new tools make your modeling more productive than ever!

Scott Hebbard and Ben Constable review some release highlights:

To suit users in different time zones, we will hold two sessions – each 60 minutes in duration.

http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/webinar/release/ea12/enterprise-architect-12-overview.html

July Webinar Announced by Sparx Systems, register Today:

http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/webinar/webinar-registration.html

Business requirements are often stored as text documents, resulting in poor traceability, lost requirements and flawed software design. The Specification Manager in Enterprise Architect 11 can help address issues of traceability while providing the convenience of a simple in-place text editor. Create, edit and review elements as text representations of objects in the model, using a process that is well understood and familiar to business analysts and management professionals alike.

In this webinar you will learn how to:

Last chance to register.

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.

Learn how to use ArchiMate and Enterprise Architect to model your enterprise architecture. Understand the complex inter-dependencies between people, processes, applications, data and hardware. Use ArchiMate to align your business and IT strategies. Register now to attend on 18th or 19th June 2014.

http://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/webinar/partners/archimate/archimate-introduction-hippo.html

I attended on the 7th of November a webinar from Sparx Systems about setting up a team modelling environment with Enterprise Architect using a centralised DBMS. This webinar was presented by Scott Hebbard, Communications Manager at Sparx Systems. It involved a step by step demonstration to cover the following topics:

• create a DB schema for the shared Enterprise Architect project with the chosen DBMS product (e.g. MySQL);
• create and configure the ODBC settings to access the database;
• initialise the project with Sparx base or an existing project;
• enable security and define groups, users, and permissions;
• use Enterprise Architect "Model mail" to enable communication throughout the team;
• define project tasks, resources, and manage them via a Gantt diagram;
• manage project literature using the Enterprise Architect Team Review.

Further links :

• A french version of this article is available here.
• The webinar video and Q&A are available from Sparx website: Setting up a Team Modeling Environment webinar (Nov 2013).

This article provides highlights from this presentation and the Q&A session between Sparx and the audience :

• Setting up the database schema and the ODBC connection is fairly straightforward.
• SparxSystems does not have any preferred or recommended DBMS vendor, so users are free to choose from any supported product such as MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, etc.
  
• Lazy load DB setting should be set to improve efficiency.
• The project must be initialised first either from Enterprise Architect base project or from an existing project (it uses the Project Transfer).
• Once Enterprise Architect security is enabled on the project (requires a key from your Sparx registered users section), users and groups can be created.
• Permissions can be set for users and/or groups e.g. Manage Diagrams to update/create/delete diagrams, Update Element to update/create/delete elements, packages and relationships, Use Version Control to run Check In/Out when the DB project is coupled with a VC repository such as SVN.
• Scott talked about Enterprise Architect mail and project management features, which can be used in such shared DB environment:
  
• The Mail Model enables all authenticated users to exchange messages ; all these messages are stored within the Enterprise Architect project (inside the database). This feature cannot integrate with a standard mail program.
  
• A project calendar and gantt view with tasks and resources management is available.
  
• The Team Review lets the team manage topics, organised within categories, for which a document that's stored within the project can be maintained and submitted for review (approval status are available : awaiting approval, approved, rejected)
  
• Mail Model, Team Review and Project management features look interesting and useful from a project management and team collaboration perspective.
  
• An interesting question asked was as whether Enterprise Architect security makes it possible to manage and restrict access to specific packages or parts of the model. Scott advised that this is not possible.
• In my opinion and from past experience, this can be achieved by coupling the project with SVN or any compatible version control repository, and set access permissions on chosen folders or path (e.g. provide full access to groupA on path trunk\models\requirements_model, and read-only access to all other users).
• The other topic raised dealt with hiding parts of the model from specific users ; this is feasible but not straightforward as suggested by Scott: "you cannot hide parts of the model from users. Instead, you could export the relevant parts of the model using XMI and make these available to users that should only see part of the model".
• Another question asked was about Enterprise Architect compatiblity with Active Directory (directory service implemented by Microsoft for Windows domain networks)
• Sparx answer : " it is possible to import user ID's from Windows Active Directory into Enterprise Architect for the purpose of managing Role Based Security. This allows you to reference user ID's that are listed in Active Directory. It is important to note that for each Windows User ID, Enterprise Architect automatically generates a random password, rather than using the Domain password. However, if necessary you can assign a new password to any imported user ID."
• For more information : Import User IDs from Active Directory
• Finally Scott advised that Enterprise Architect does not authenticate directly against the LDAP group. However, you can import your Windows user IDs from Windows Active Directory and use those as the security user IDs with Windows Authentication. There is a check box on the Security Users dialog to "Accept Windows Authentication".