Displaying items by tag: modeling

Diagram Layers

As I'm sure we all know by now EA 15.1 is available for registered users to get to grips with. Like a kid in a candy store I went & grabbed it right away so that I could play with one of the new features in particular...diagram layers.

I was particularly keen to get to grips with this feature as recently I have been building up some beefy BPMN 2.0 Collaboration diagrams for some of our internal processes here at Dunstan Thomas. The challenge I was facing was how do I communicate a large process to a stakeholder that does not understand the notation (or any notation) without making their brain explode? Up until now I had resorted to explaining the process one logical path (and the branches therein) at time and walking through step by step. This works but it's not ideal...luckily some of our favorite Australian developers have had an absolutely great idea of being able to add layers to our diagrams (of our own specification) that will then allow us to toggle said layers on and off, thereby hiding any elements not contained by the layer we are focussing on.

I have found this invaluable already in communicating with non-technical stakeholders larger diagrams as I can temporarily hide anything I am not currently presenting and thus removing the risk of an overwhelmed stakeholder losing interest. 

I have put together a short clip on how easy it is to apply layers to your diagrams with EA 15.1: https://youtu.be/cFQ0-ecSsTg

Go and download EA 15.1 and try it yourself, it is so easy to do and we are already finding client interest in this feature.

LieberLieber is proud to announce a new and free Enterprise Architect plug-in called EnArValidationRules essential for all Enterprise Architect users who want to validate their models with individual and customizable validation rules. In addition, it provides the possibility to auto-correct any errors and warnings that occur, based on the pre-defined validation rules.

Key features:

• Validate your models and diagrams
• Enable/Disable each validation rule
• Activate auto-correction for each rule
• Backup your models automatically

As depicted in the screenshot, we have defined different rules for demonstration purposes. For example, the total account of elements for each package or diagram is limited to a certain number. Furthermore, it is only allowed to use instances of classes within a sequence diagram. And each element has to realize at least one requirement or test case. Of course, these rules can be adopted and extended.

You can download this free plug-in here.

If you are interested in more rules for your modeling projects, do not hesitate to contact sales(at)lieberlieber(dot)com.

We're pleased to announce the release of eaDocX v3.3, making it even easier to integrate your EA analyses directly into Word and Excel with no need for scripting.

New features include: 
- Support for Word and Excel 2013 
- Model Expert: a graphical tool to help you understand the structure of your EA model 
- Even better Quick documents to create a Word document of any package in your model in just 2 clicks 
- Phone home - to keep you up to date with latest releases 
- More configurable options for your documents 
- Define your own Word Table styles 
- and a whole load of other customer requests 

For more information and a free 30 day trial visit www.eadocx.com

The UML is a popular modeling notation for programmers, but it is little used by database developers. Nevertheless, the UML is highly effective for high-level conceptual data modeling. The UML notation avoids confusing database details, making it easier for business experts to understand data models. The suppression of details promotes deep thinking about data models, such as the use of abstract patterns. This talk explains the UML notation by comparison to IDEF1X.