Відео

Thank you for the post. I would agree with that, and there is a lot missing from this demo model to be able to effectively compile. The point of the video was around using traceability to find such issues. Again, thank you for the observation and feedback.

First off, THANK YOU!! What a great post filled with challenges! I see at least 7 questions in your post, which guide me to even more questions, such as "When to turn SysML modeling data into Analytics (questions on data)?", "How to extract or abstract intelligence from model-driven data?", and many more. Summary of questions: 1) How to navigate a relation that's modeled by placing elements in Partitions? 2) Is SysML or EA enforcing ownership of Activities->Partitions->Actions? 3) Why can't I see every invocation (action) of an Activity in its Traceability view? 4) Do you have an opinion in the callBehavior vs callOperation debate? 5) Which of Operations, Activities, Actions (if any) would you propose to transport Functional Requirements from Problem to Solution Domain, which likely is a separate model? 6) Is it valid to think of them analogous to e.g. a function definition and calling other functions in the body of the function? 7) When is it advisable to use only opaque Actions without a relation to an Activity or Operation and what would be the analogy to functions here? Not yet defined? Or the called function is declared but not defined in scope? Conclusion I have been trying to get to the topic of SysML since early 2024. This is an Advanced Topic for CASE Engineers. So much in fact, that we pushed it to a Members Only approach in the Online Courses we are creating for 2025. Let me see what we can put together for this UA-cam channel and I will keep you posted. The plan was to start with "The Introduction to SysML", but we may produce a video, in advance, to the "introduction" video to tackle these questions. I am not sure what industry you are in, but our use case may be around ML, AI, and Robotics (an area I have been working in). Thanks again for the post! Happy Modeling

Interesting you used the reference "toy project". I'll have to remember that one. 😀 When we go into a company, we have them create a "training project". When they can’t do that, we take an older project and strip it down to the beginning, Requirements Engineering. Then, whatever tooling they are using, usually Sparx, we have their team(s) apply UML and Documenting to deliver IT. Three things usually occur: No1, they cannot document No2, they cannot collaborate No3, they have a lot of excuses why they cannot do No1 or No2🥲 Maybe I am using the wrong “T” Word and should call it a "Toy Project". THANK YOU and HAPPY MODELING

Great Question! If you deleted from your Browser, which is a view into the Sparx Database, the only way to recover is by "Restoring" from a Baseline or Backup. Once some is removed/changed in the Sparx Database, like any database, the only recovery is through some type of backup capability. Through the channel, I always recommend doing regular Baselines or Snapshots. This stores the data of that snapshot date/time. During Design phases, I am always change Features, Attributes, and Operations, as we are collaborating with Stakeholders. I have forgotten, a few times, to Baseline, or create an XML backup, before making changes. If you remember that Sparx is more about "Data" than "Pictures", we remember to treat and protect "our data". I have several videos on Baselining, Exporting, and Importing Sparx Model Data.

Thanks again for the question. I responded, with the same answer, to your other post on the "Fun with State Machine Diagrams (e8)" video. The way to recover from "deletes" is through backup restores from Baselines or XML exports. You either restore from a previous Baseline, or Import a previous XML export. I hope this helps.

Hello and thank you for the post 😀. I am going to go to video time-marker 11:55 where I am showing Circle and Rectangle as Sub-Types of Shape (the Superclass). Here we have both Classes stereotyped as <<type>> and using Generalization as connector to Shape which is the <<ImplementationClass>>. For inheritance to work properly in OO UML, we must use Generalization where the source is the Circle and Rectangle Shapes, and the target is the “Shape” Class. In all these Classes, we add a “Tagged Value” property called “Type” and assign this Tagged Value to each Class (Shape, Circle, and Rectangle), and “Value” tags for each Shape (Circle, Rectangle, Shape). If done correctly, we should see the Tagged Values for each class, and in the Sub-Classes (subtype of Shape), you should see (in these sub-classes) the inherited Tagged Value “from Shape”. Be sure you are using “Generalization” as the connector-type and not “Realization”. Generalization represents an "is-a" relationship, where a more specific subclass inherits attributes and behaviors from a more general superclass. And Realization represents an "implements" relationship, where a class (or component) implements an interface, adhering to its contract. Please let me know if you still are not seeing tagged values inherited from Shape in either Circle or Rectangle examples. It should not matter what version of Sparx you are on for this to work as intended by the OMG UML Standards.

Yes! Great tool.!! A lot of Developers, we work with, say their code is their documentation and don't need to use Sparx or other drawing tools, but they do like to use PlantUML to depict their Sequence and Class Diagrams.

Thank you!! Yeah, I use Mind Maps every time I am starting a problem-solving mission. I have so many things and businesses that I am supporting, it's easy to lose track "in my mind" 😀... and get "off topic" 🙃 With Mind Maps, if/when I return to a "Topic", I can get back on track. Thanks again and Happy Modeling!

In both Sparx Version 16 and 17, go to the "Design" Tab, then over to the Diagram Panel, and choose "Options" drop down. You will find "Sequence Communication Messages" to reorder Communication Messages in the current diagram. You should also be able to get to the same Dialog Box by Right-Clicking on the Message in the Communication Diagram to get a pop-up menu (quick access menu) and see "Sequence Communication Messages..." there too.😀

Here is a short Video on how to re-order messages in Communication Diagrams: ua-cam.com/video/igdVYHQQcZA/v-deo.html 😀 Happy Modeling

Great questions!! The short answer is, "it depends". We need to be short and concise at the start and can get much more detailed as we go. Let me think about this and put a video in the queue for the "Why" and "When". I will note that "Constraints" can be interpreted differently based on the case and objectives. I tend to push the boundaries of how OMG defines UML Constraints. Taking OCL out of the picture, I tend to loosely use "constraints" to represent human concerns, views, and viewpoints. We can apply "constraints" at the Use Case Property level, at the Requirement Property level, or any other element properties (each for their own reason and interpretations). Most of my models "tell stories" in human-readable form, while technical models follow strict programming language interpretations of "constraints" and should be "machine readable". With that said, my Use Case Templates, when at Summary and User-Goal levels, are "Human Readable" and when at sub-function level, they are Machine Interpretable. "Success Guarantees" are applicable to all levels and represent important "constraints" (performance objectives) we are looking for. Again, let me read this a couple times and break things down into "requirements" for a view response 😉 Thanks so much for this post!! HAPPY MODELING

Sparx EA released XMI 2.1 in Version 7 back in 2007. So you are in a new version and it is greyed out (disabled), but you do see 2.1, right? Do you own the license, or is it a company license and possibly configured by a Model Administrator?

Sparx version 17 took it out in the Microsoft Office 2022 Theme, but it's still in the Microsoft Office 2016 Theme :)

VERY NICE USE CASE!! excuse the pun :)... Short answer: We create a "Test Requirement" simply titled "Test Function n" where "Test Case A" implements the Test Requirement. Our "Use Case A" implements that requirement. Test Case A is Associated to Use Case A and References the Component and/or Function (where the function is part of Component A) Long answer: Let me do this in my next My First... video. I will title the video "My First Test Case". Although, it's a little more advanced and ahead of schedule, I think it's a great learning example for interested subscribers. NOTE: I will use some features and capabilities in Sparx for doing this. We will use Model Builder for a basic Use Case Model with Test Cases and a Starter Component Diagram to address our System boundary. We will define a Scenario for the Test Case and we will do some basic documentation. We will attempt to get this video out next Thursday, 10/24, unless something urgent arrives :)

You are right! THANK YOU. There are five ways to bring up the Sparx EA Toolbox: 1) Use Design Ribbon, in "Diagram" Panel, select Toolbox 2) Use the Guillement "<<" (double arrows) at the left top of the work area window 3) Using the Quick Access Design from the All Windows panel, you can get the Toolbox to a currently 'remembered' placed in your workspace. Also, in the Diagram, press Alt+1 and the Design Panel pops up. NOTE: Alt+ 1 through 7 pops each of the Quick Access pop-ups. 4) Using the spacebar, while on a diagram, pops the Toolbox where you mouse is. 5) Using Keyboard shortcuts, while in a diagram, is Ctrl+Shift+3, will pop and place the Toolbox where you have configured it for the workspace. The "Spacebar" approach is great for those familiar with each of the icons and understand that the element is placed where the mouse pointer is. Thanks again :)

@@UMLOperator you're welcome. I love your videos..

LOL, I am still laughing, and then I start crying because Sparx took away the "Find Command..." next to the Tabs in Sparx 17. I want an AI Feature we can type/talk to to actually find what I am looking for. While I push ChatGPT as a learning tool, even that is wrong 80% of the time, but still better than Sparx Search 😉. My "My First..." video series is pushing teams to use the Model Builder documentation to build their own "Job Aids" and customize to fit their team's culture and processes. Then build a Model Library with a their own "Quick Access" Category for targeted roles. Thank you so much for the post!

Yes. We will move across the top, talk about Cloning and touch on Versioning.

@@UMLOperator Thanks!

Thank you for asking! Yes, go to the time marker of 2_26 in ua-cam.com/video/stmn0aE8mbY/v-deo.html in "Sparx Import A DB Schema" video. Don't worry about Entity Framework, as that would be a separate conversation, but we can talk about the "transform" topic if you need. You will see when you get to this point of Database Schema import (2_26 time marker), you can select the table(s) you want. You can watch that video in entirety and let me know specific questions I did that video quickly and should do another video on the subject for Sparx 17. We are planning this as part of the new "External Data Import" capabilities in Sparx 17.

@@UMLOperator That is exactly what I needed!

Yeah, I can't wait! So many things going on in my company as well as from the Sparx EA Version 17 release 😀. Some content has pushed the Scripting Series off a little bit. I assume you have already watched ua-cam.com/video/0T9p6X8cwT8/v-deo.html Question: Are you just starting with Sparx Scripting, or have you advanced any? We plan on starting with simple custom scripts, then moving to things like getting data from an external database.

@@UMLOperator Yes, I've watched it -thanks. I'm only at beginner level for the scripting, and haven't really progressed. I've learnt most of SparxEA from your series. Thanks!

I like the way you phrased that, “…formal process”. I started UML in 1999 (a couple years after the industry release). When I started, I was looking for faster ways to learn. Scott Ambler was one of my mentors on the subject. When UML 2.x came out around 2003, it really took off, and a friend of mine from Japan, introduced me to Sparx EA. I started in ArgoUML, but moved to Sparx and never looked back. Now I help companies in System and Software Architecture/Engineering and receive many challenges from Modelers, thus the reason for this channel today. Keep me posted on challenges you have. We attempt to expose “a formal process” in our playlist on Model-Driven Anything”, ua-cam.com/play/PLB12uLQxqtuVJQYxCsmnsTWnq5YjwGT-X.html More to come, Thank you

Absolutely! Thank you for asking. That is one of the reasons I started a Series on Learning faster and more effectively. While TAM started in Version 16.1, it was not ready for primetime. The new Timelines access and Timelines window was very exciting, and we are using daily. Expect a TAM session soon 😀

@@UMLOperator awaiting sir!😊

@@Learner-y8e The first TAM video comes out next Tuesday. We will start with the Timelines feature, then have other videos that get into Cloning, Versioning, and Traceability.

@@UMLOperator Super Excited sir 😎

Thank you! On the Discord front, because we are so busy with clients, it's hard to commit time to a Discord Channel (moderating & support). Things were supposed to slow down this year, but that has not happened yet. The question is whether to do Discord, or to build communities on the Training Course platform we are currently working on. Also, Patreon may be another options. You have motivated me to get a community started faster. I would love to hear your story on why modeling is such a critical part of your personal life. I too, have the same passion. I will keep you posted.

For Class elements as Graph Nodes, we use Custom Draw. We can also use Shape Scripts, but that is another subject 😀 There is a couple approaches to applying "weight". I prefer to use Tagged Values because we will apply these weights automatically on query-runs, and do not manually enter them. Other approaches use "Constraints" being applied using OCL (object constrain language), either OCL directly or as Pre- or Post- Conditions. To be honest, we use Sparx for Design and our Graph Tooling for monitoring and producing Analytics for Machine Learning. But since we are already producing JSON output, sometimes we apply back to our Sparx Models for documenting. I hope that answered your question. If not, let me know. Happy Modeling 😎

I just published a video on how we transformed the shapes: "Turn Class Shape to Node Shape" ua-cam.com/video/Au10ySPfGRU/v-deo.html

If you copy the Glossary cells from Sparx Glossary View directly, you do not get the GlossaryID column. > You are correct, going to Sparx SQL Table (t_glossary) is the best way to do CRUD operations outside of Sparx. > Another way is through XML. Exporting the Glossary only, as Reference Data, gives you a good XML file where you can manage the data. Just remember to keep the GlossaryID unique (incremented). > I have developed Web Tooling to read the Sparx Glossary table and even do CRU operations (be careful with Delete). > I also use a BI Tool (e.g., PowerBI, Tableau) to extract and manage Sparx Glossary and other data. We support a lot of companies that have their own Glossaries and Acronym data which we mine and bring into Sparx. That's the beautiful thing about Sparx as a SQL Backend 😀

Specifically for Software Modeling? Yes, we are planning to start publishing later this year. Our playlist on "Model Driven Anything" is the start for such focus. The problems we see in Software Modeling, and Development in general, is due to lack of proper/effective Requirements Engineering. Thus we have been focused on the front end of software development. I appreciate your post because to you put focus on "requirements" and "use case", which are the most important starting points. We have done a lot of videos on Use Case modeling driving Simulation and auto-generating State Machine and Behavioral Diagrams. If you do a search on UML Operator, let me know if any are close to your needs, and we will attempt to fill those gaps. I may try to put old videos into a specific playlist, or create new ones. But feel I should start from scratch. Question to you: Do you have a specific set of Use Cases, or just one, you would deal with (high level)? The reason for asking, is that we have a couple of use cases; one being Engine Control Modules (ECM). Another is e-Commerce Personalization, dealing with tailoring outcomes for user experiences (UX). We are going for UX scenarios. Thoughts?

​@@UMLOperator First off, thanks for your prompt reply, sir. To answer your question, we have some high-level requirements and their breakdown specific to our Access Point project. but we don't know how to apply it to developing usecases and building building systems that satisfy the requirements (components) and its logic (class) in Sparx Enterprise Architect. It would be really helpful to see something from you, like 10 minutes of video showing this travel with a very minimal subset of any example, sir. We tried the learning center from Sparx, but it's very vast, sir. Thanks in Advance :)

@@Learner-y8e First off, thank you so much for the "10 Minute" rule :). I try to keep things short, but I am so passionate about UML, when I start...I look down and it's 30 minutes of content :). I am starting a Playlist, "5 Minutes or Less". However, your request will have me stay with 10 Minutes or less :) Ok, I will put your request into our queue. We actually have started scripting for our Training Courses starting soon. I will tweak a script to support your scenario. Be patient as we shuffle our queue and try to get this video out soon.

@@UMLOperator Thanks you so much sir😊.. We're looking forward to it.

Yes. We use Class Diagrams to accomplish this. As you know, graph databases deal with Nodes, Edges, and Properties. Classes represent nodes, Associations represent relationships, and Attributes represent the Properties of Nodes and Edges. We model our Class diagram(s) to represent a specific instance of the Graph, which then allows us to depict the Nodes (as objects) and the associations (edges) between Nodes in the Graph. There are limitations, so we usually do this side-by-side with query languages (e.g., Cypher, Neo4j) for our graph-specific models. This works as long as we understand the limitations. Thank you for the question! We have done quite a bit with UML related to things like horizontal and vertical data relevance (and traversal) in ML design and learning models (e.g., Personalization and Tailoring). These are advance subjects in CASE/UML, and will try to get to these later.

@@UMLOperator As regards how to make the shape of a Node represented by a Class to be round, I got the answer in your video [Sparx EA Custom Drawing Style (e18)]

Yes, this is very beneficial 😃...QQs, Is the source of record, that defines your Tagged Values, maintained outside of Sparx? Or, are some or all Tagged Values defined in Sparx? WOW! Great post! Thank you!!

@@UMLOperator I just made them up in the Excel to Identify just a few like Area, Function etc... as needed by the teams.

@@q34dana Thanks again. It was great to come back to 'flat files" or CSV again. They certainly are great sources of 'data' in action. Here, we built our own Web UI over a simple database, that does the same thing as we were doing in Excel (video coming soon ). This allows us to integrate with other external ALM/DevSecOps third party platforms. Then we use scripting to access that table for import/export with Sparx EA. However, we still have clients that give us their Requirements/Scope in Excel. We also use BI Tooling (e.g., PowerBI) to analyze data to support these table views. This is what is wonderful about 'data first' tools such as Sparx EA vs other tools in the industry. Thank you for your leadership in this area. HAPPY MODELING!

Yes 😀 ... my answer is yes because I am passionate about this subject. See umloperator.blogspot.com/2024/09/sparx-ea-and-open-collaboration.html for more. Our series on these subject may be much later as we are currently working on so many other projects. We have some other content to cover, and planning to launch our Online Training and Communities. Thank you for asking! I would like to ask what other tooling you are implementing? Is Azure DevOps your only concern? Any other platforms, such as Git, GitLab, AWS DevOps, Jira?

@@UMLOperator I’m currently interested in Azure DevOps and in anything related to Azure development/architecture in general. I’ve seen Sparx Enterprise Architect has some capabilities to model Azure architecture and it would be nice to know more about it as well.

We are launching our Online Courses later this year, when time permits. I will keep you posted. Thank you for asking.

Hello UML Operator. I was able to figure it out. The Sparx documentation stated to put the Legend into a standard UML diagram (previously, I had it in a SysML diagram). Then (with the diagram opened), I navigated to: Specialize >> Technologies >> Publish Technology >> Publish Diagram as Pattern, and saved my pattern as 'xxx.xml'. In a new Project File, I navigated to: Resources >> Patterns, and dragged + dropped the Legend. 🙂

Hello @johnkhan174, I hope all is well 😀. I have a video I create last year, ua-cam.com/video/uYMyS7EsbJo/v-deo.html. This would be used for one "Legend" in this case, at a time. If you want to reuse/share all your Legends, there are at least 2 ways: 1) Export your Legend building folder using XMI (XML Metadata Interchange). Name this folder something like, "XMI Exports". Subfolders may be titled, "<project name>", where the XMI store is "%drive%/Sparx/Model Repo/XMI Exports/OurCo KMS Project Release 1/". This way you can get to the model package exports for a specific project, theme, or area. NOTE: Place the XML in a specific shared folder for XMI. Do not mix with other XML. Name the XMI file something meaningful, such as "SharedModel_PackageName_version" or "SM_<packageName>_<version>. 2) Version in Reusable Asset Service (RAS) under a storage area. Learn more here: "Start a Project From Sparx RAS" ua-cam.com/video/NbEQwONHdDc/v-deo.html Summary, Each Legend as a reusable Pattern; Legends as a reusable Package via XMI; Legend or Legend Package shared from RAS. Let me do a video on this question. I will get it out soon.

😀 Yeah, this actually saved me. Doing the rest of the MDA series was tough doing things the manual way. It was great timing to bring in automation early. For other client projects, we use other UML Tooling (simple drawing tools that boast of great things, but end up taking more time to deliver). This is why I prefer to use Sparx EA!! 🤓 Usually pays for itself in one project.