During design and analytical works, the necessity to calculate the parameters of a business process or to estimate the complexity of the built software arises repeatedly. Most formal methods often require quite difficult calculations. On the other hand, during analytical or design works an activity diagram is usually created, which presents, in a natural way, the components of the business process or the elements of use case scenario. In this article, I will attempt to present how to calculate selected parameters of the business process using activity diagrams modeled in Enterprise Architect and additional tool (Tormigo).

The fundamental reason why the described feature is present in Tormigo (the module is called Tormigo Analytics) is the need for knowledge about the parameters of given business process. When describing the business process using the activity diagram, we wanted to know how much the service delivery will cost and how long it will take. In case of unforked business processes it is easy to calculate it, whilst in case of more complex diagrams it was tedious and prone to errors made by the person calculating these parameters.

TORMIGO’s capacity in the scope of calculating business process parameters pre-defined by an analyst will be presented on an example of pizza ordering process (Fig. 1).

In this case, the use of TORMIGO Analytics will be aimed at help in answering the question how the change of the business process will affect the order processing time. The change relates to the requirement that the employees of the customer service department should propose additional pizza toppings. The change in the ordering process has been marked red in the diagram below (Fig. 2)

After creation of diagrams, the next step is to describe the parameters based on Tagged Values. These parameters may be defined in Tormigo in Analysis → Definition of TAP Tag (Fig. 3)

Next, clicking Add button allows one to add a parameter. In our example it will be the maximum time (TIME_MAX). Tormigo added an appropriate column automatically (Fig.).

Using filters that can be found to the right (Fig.) allows one to find more quickly the activities that we want to describe

It is important that the values of the parameters may be described in Tormigo not only in the place indicated above, but also by selecting from menu Analysis → Activities, Tagged Values tab (Fig. 6)

or in Enterprise Architect in the properties of the activity in Tagged Values tab (Fig. 7)

After defining the parameters, it is time to see the analysis results. In order to prepare the report, one should select from Analysis menu -> Analysis of TAP for activity diagrams. Next, from the drop-down list one should select the diagram that will be analyzed and confirm the selection with Select button (Fig.

In Summary tab one can view the list of activities that compose the process. Report description tab allows one to define additional parameters such as the title of the report, data of the person preparing the report, date of preparing it and a version (default date format is YYYYMMDD). By clicking Generate report button, the report preview is generated. Sample reports are defined in Figures 9 and 10.

Those reports indicate the time expressed in seconds, but this type of variable values serves only as an example. It may be currency, number of parts, mass or any other unit of measurement as well.

It is time to mention limitations: Activities marked with an asterisk mean looped actions. When Tormigo Analytics finds the occurrence of a loop, it will repeat it only once.

Tormigo Analytics is limited by its functionality to activity diagrams, since it does not analyze the types of gates but only traces the sequence of the activity determined by connections.

Summing up, Tormigo Analytics is a very good tool for estimating the changes resulting from the modification of the business process. Calculation of the sum of values of particular parameters is one of the simplest forms of estimation. In many cases, this method may prove to be sufficient to demonstrate gains or losses resulting from the implementation of modeled changes.

To change the language of TORMIGO please select from the menu:
File (Plik) –> Application configuration (Konfiguracja aplikacji )

or

In point of application language (język aplikacji) to select the appropriate language (Polish or English)

or

We are pleased to inform you that MANEA – a plugin allowing for synchronization of entries from MANTIS Bug Tracker with Enterprise Architect has been updated.
I would like to remind that MANEA is the plugin to MANTIS BUG TRACKER that allows for two-way synchronization of selected entries from the MANTIS BT system with the requirements repository contained in Enterprise Architect.
We are pleased to inform you that currently the plugin is used by dozens of companies around the world.

MANEA in 1.28 version means, above all, the possibility to work with 1.28 version of MANTIS Bug Tracker – current stable version of this tool.
In the new version, we have removed some minor bugs. Moreover, we have simplified the possibility of using the demo version. Now you do not have to register to use demo version of our plugin. All you have to do is to download the demo files and key. Instructions for downloading and activating the demo version may be downloaded from http://manea.modesto.pl/downloads/
On the occasion of the update, you can buy MANEA for 100$ (net) till the end of 2011. Orders for the special price can be placed on the platform http://takeit.modesto.pl/en/manea/207-manea.html

Change management is one of the most difficult tasks faced by the Project Team. Enterprise Architect allows the change management based on the baseline mechanism. The problem is that it is difficult to generate the change report from EA level. In my work, I use TORMIGO in which I can obtain a rational change report.
The aim of this text is to present the possibility of using the baseline mechanism in reporting the changes of the Enterprise Architect project repository.

1. Preparing baseline for the package

1.1. Select the package for which the baseline is to be created from the project repository in EA, and then from the popup menu (right mouse button) select Package Control -> Manage Baselines or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+B on the selected package.
1.2. Create new baseline in the open Manage Baselines window by clicking New Baseline button.
1.3. Enter the version number in New Baseline window, that will help you identify the modelling stage at which the baseline was created. Leave the Include sub-packages checkbox selected to include nested packages.

Figure 1. Adding new baseline.

1.4. Click OK to start creating a new baseline. After successful completion of generation in the Manage baselines window, a newly created element will be displayed (see: Figure 2).

2. Preparing change log file on the basis of baseline

/* Enter the changes in a current model so that the content of the log file was not empty. */
2.1. Select baseline which is to be compared to the current model in Manage Baselines window, and then click Show Differences button.

Figure 2. Launching   the comparison of the current model to baseline.

2.2. Information about the differences between baseline and the current model will be displayed in Compare Utility window. The elements that have changed are displayed in the tree in the left panel. After clicking on the selected element, the properties of the element in the model and in the baseline will be displayed in the right panel. The differences will be highlighted.

Figure 3. Display of differences between the current model and the baseline.

2.3. Click the element for which the change log file is to be prepared in Model Elements tree, and then click Log to XML icon on Compare Utility bar in the upper part of the window.
2.4. Enter the name of the file and its location in Select Export Filename dialog box. Acceptance of the file name will save the change log in XML format on the disk.

3. Preparing change log file on the basis of model export file

3.1. Enter changes in the package in the additional repository, and then export the package to XMI file.
3.2. In the main repository, select the package that is to be compared, and then go to Manage baselines window (see item 1.1).
3.3. Select Compare Model To File button in Manage Baselines window and select the file with the exported package from item 3.1.
3.4. The information about the differences between the exported package and a package in the current model will be displayed in Compare Utility window.
3.5. Click the element for which the change log file is to be prepared in Model Elements tree, and then click Log to XML icon on Compare Utility bar in the upper part of the window.
3.6. Enter the name of the file and its location in Select Export Filename dialog box. Acceptance of the file name will save the change log in XML format on the disk.

4. Generating Tormigo Baseline Report

4.1.Launch Tormigo and connect to yours project Repository

4.2. Launch Report Baseline report generation window from Reporting menu and select Report Baseline.
4.3. Select change log file using Load log file button in Raport Baseline (Baseline Report) window

Figure 4. Tormigo Baseline report generation window.

4.4. If the structure of the selected log file is correct, Tormigo will display information about the compared package and the elements included in the log file in the Log File Status. Should the structure of the file be not correct, the system will display the appropriate message.
4.5. Click Generate report button to display Report Preview window which will allow you to preview the report, save it to the selected file type and to print the report.

Figure 5. Fragment of the report preview window.

5. Example of the final report with TORMIGO

Figure 6. Tormigo Baseline sample report.

Feel free to download: http://tormigo.modesto.pl/downloads

This movie presents a demo Tormigo GDocs Module which allows for synchronization of the requirements saved in the Enterprise Architect with Google Docs spreadsheet. Thanks to it, the requirements can be written by many people.

Group work in the cloud is a very convinient solution. Anyone who has tried to write the text with another person at the same time in applications such as Google Docs knows how effective and valuable these solutions are. Thanks to products such as the aforesaid Google Docs, the group work gained another dimension. It seems to be purposeful to move the benefits from the teamwork in the cloud into the world of requirements engineering.

In the present text, I will try to present how to manage requirements collected in Enterprise Architect using Google Docs spreadsheet.

Czytaj więcej »

If you define requirements in Enterprise Architect and you like to work under Linux, use Tormigo. Tormigo works under Windows and Linux platforms. Tormigo does not allow for modeling, but you can:

• load requirements directly from OpenOffice
• create the content of new requirement or modify the existing one
• create use cases
• save use cases scenarios
• assign requirements to use cases
• create many advanced reports

Check out our 30 days free TORMIGO version. Free download.

Tormigo also enables direct introduction of requirements into Enterprise Architect.

When managing requirements, often the problem is the versioning and tracing changes in requirements. This problem is also present in Enterprise Architect. Tormigo – an application I thought up – helps manage this procedure. It not only versioning automatically, but also stores copies of the previous versions. Below, please find a clip presenting this functionality.

If the screen is too small, click your right mouse button on the clip and select Toggle Fullscreen. You may also select the clip-resizing button on the right side in the bottom.

Aside from acquisition of requirements, Tormigo additionally allows efficient mapping of requirements for use cases. The advantage of this application is that it helps automatically make traceabilty between requirements and use cases or another requirement.

Below, please find a clip presenting this functionality.

The most important feature of Tormigo is the possibility of acquiring requirements directly from a text document. Open Office has been chosen as a text document as it opens popular file formats, including doc and docx. In addition, Open Office operates in Linux.

The acquired requirements are entered directly into the Enterprise Architect’s repository.

I am pleased to announce that our CASE STUDY concerning our cooperation with PIAP was published on the websites of Sparx Systems community. A link to the Case Study: http://community.sparxsystems.com/casestudies/engineering/architecture-and-interfaces-management-proteus-system-case-study.

Apart from Enterprise Architect, we also used our Tormigo application during the project.

Tormigo additionally has a feature of advanced reporting.

Below, please find a clip presenting this functionality.

When managing requirements, often the problem is the versionizing and tracing changes in requirements. This problem is also present in Enterprise Architect. Tormigo – an application I thought up – helps manage this procedure. It not only versionizes automatically, but also stores copies of the previous versions. Below, please find a clip presenting this functionality.

Tormigo also enables direct introduction of requirements into Enterprise Architect.