Update to Sparx Enterprise Architect Based on UML 2.4.1
The latest Sparx Systems' Enterprise Architect update -- Version 9.3 -- is notable for allowing users to simultaneously work with multiple diagrams, tools, and views.
The popular modeling, visualization, and design platform solution lets users simulate complex application behaviors as they display views of elements and relationships between those behaviors. A particularly noteworthy new feature to the solution is its ability to display multiple diagrams and model views at once -- so-called "floating and dockable diagram views" -- that makes it easier to compare elements, review searches, and reference model data, according to the company.
This feature also allows users to easily move elements between diagrams, develop Working Sets that can contain the layout of active floating views, and share Global Working Sets with other users working with the model. Users of Enterprise Artchitect now can "edit one diagram while referencing source code, requirements, search results or a Linked Document in a separate Floating View," according to Sparx Systems.
The company is also proud of this version's Testpoint Management Facility, whose model-driven approach clearly separates the concerns of testing and implementation of the code base. "This means you are not forced to rebuild the application every time you make a change to the test condition," the company explained in a prepared statement.
Enterprise Architect 9.3 is based on UML 2.4.1, the latest "dot" release of the Object Management Group's (OMG's) widely used Unified Modeling Language specification. The UML includes a set of graphic notation techniques to create visual models of object-oriented systems and has become an industry standard and is also a critical part in the foundation of the OMG's Model Driven Architecture (MDA) spec. As the OMG points out on its Web site, MDA "unifies every step of development and integration from business modeling, through architectural and application modeling, to development, deployment, maintenance, and evolution."
This Enterprise Architect release also supports the latest version of ArchiMate, the modeling language for enterprise architecture (EA) released earlier this year by The Open Group. Developed by the ArchiMate Forum within the Open Group, ArchiMate 2.0 is more closely aligned with the TOGAF Enterprise Architecture, which, according to the organization, enables enterprise architects to improve the way business and IT stakeholders "collaborate and adapt to change."
The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) defines a method for developing EA. It includes a set of supporting tools, called the TOGAF Resource Base, but at its heart is a description of a step-by-step approach to the process called the Architecture Development Method (ADM).
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John K. Waters is the editor in chief of a number of Converge360.com sites, with a focus on high-end development, AI and future tech. He's been writing about cutting-edge technologies and culture of Silicon Valley for more than two decades, and he's written more than a dozen books. He also co-scripted the documentary film Silicon Valley: A 100 Year Renaissance, which aired on PBS. He can be reached at jwaters@converge360.com.