Enterprise Architect

Posted by Tim Kuehn on 12-Jan-2007 10:08

Having heard about EA a number of times on this site, I figured I'd give it a spin.

Wow... talk about a lot to learn. There's a lot of functionality in this package, aimed at all kinds of different kinds of users from business analysts to technologists, etc.

What's the best way to go about learning this thing? How did others do it?

All Replies

Posted by Thomas Mercer-Hursh on 12-Jan-2007 11:44

You might want to pursue this on the Modeling forum, but there is a reasonable quick tutorial on the Sparx site and some good examples provided with the product. Other than that, I suppose it is books. One I found interesting was Executable UML by Mellor and Baker because it is aimed at MDA.

Posted by Tim Kuehn on 15-Jan-2007 14:34

I must say, what I've seen of EA so far is really impressive. There's almost too much stuff in here!

Posted by Thomas Mercer-Hursh on 15-Jan-2007 14:42

And, of course, the truth is that no one actually uses all of it ... but different people use different parts so that one really needs all that is there. Load up the EAP file for AutoEdge.

Posted by Tim Kuehn on 15-Jan-2007 15:29

Load up the EAP file for AutoEdge.

I like!

Are all the files .html, which I presume are extracts / reports generated by EA? Is there a EA file I can open in EA itself?

Posted by Thomas Mercer-Hursh on 15-Jan-2007 16:03

Look in /autoedge/doc/specifications for the autoedge.eap file.

Posted by Tim Kuehn on 15-Jan-2007 16:08

Yes! That's what I'm after.

This'll be great for getting a better "concept" of what an EA model looks like and how it's used.

Thanks!

Posted by Thomas Mercer-Hursh on 15-Jan-2007 16:12

Remember, of course, that AutoEdge is still .p, which means the model isn't quite the same as I would expect it to be if it were OO.

Posted by Tim Kuehn on 15-Jan-2007 16:17

Remember, of course, that AutoEdge is still .p, which

means the model isn't quite the same as I would

expect it to be if it were OO.

That's ok, I'm only looking for a way to get my mind around how it does what it does.

Posted by Thomas Mercer-Hursh on 15-Jan-2007 16:27

One of the things to remember about UML is that the diagrams are essentially "views" on an underlying structure where the view is designed to help you think about a particular aspect of the behavior and structure of the system. This is not unlike SQL views that one might construct to bring together certain aspects and make it easier for someone to make a query because all of the joins have been premade. But, in the end, the diagram is just a tool, not the end product.

Posted by Tim Kuehn on 15-Jan-2007 16:36

in the end, the diagram is just a tool, not the end product.

It certainly helps makes visualizing the end product a lot easier though.

Posted by Thomas Mercer-Hursh on 15-Jan-2007 16:51

Well, yes

But one sometimes need to remember to look at it from a different direction from time to time.

Posted by Tim Kuehn on 15-Jan-2007 18:30

But one sometimes need to remember to look at it from a different direction from time to time.

Boy did that bring up some "interesting" images....

This thread is closed