Enterprise Architect

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Overview

Enterprise Architect is a comprehensive modelling and design tool for model-based software and systems engineering (MBSE), enterprise architecture management (EAM) and data architecture. Enterprise Architect has been continuously developed by Sparx Systems for over 25 years and is used in various industries to create, manage and visualise complex systems.

It offers a wealth of features and functionalities that support software architects, system engineers, business analysts and other participants in their work.

Enterprise Architect is now used by 80% of the Fortune 100 companies and by more than one million users. In everyday use, Enterprise Architect is characterised in particular by its openness and connectivity to many other IT systems, which makes it much easier to integrate into an existing tool chain in companies.

Introduction

Enterprise Architect serves as a versatile platform for designing, documenting, analysing and communicating software systems and business processes. It supports over 80 modelling languages and notations, including Unified Modelling Language (UML), Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), Systems Modelling Language (SysML), ArchiMate and more. This flexibility allows users to create models that accurately represent different aspects of a system or process.

Buy Enterprise Architect

Are you working with an older version of Enterprise Architect and would like to upgrade to the latest version? Here you will find an overview of the licence fees in direct comparison.

Key Functions of Enterprise Architect

Modelling and Design

The beating heart of Enterprise Architect are its modelling and design capabilities. Users can create different types of diagrams and models to represent system structure, behaviour, requirements and more. These include class diagrams, sequence diagrams, state machine diagrams, use case diagrams and entity-relationship diagrams. The platform offers a variety of modelling elements and relationships to express complex concepts and dependencies.

Requirements Management

Enterprise Architect facilitates requirements management by allowing the user to capture, organise and track requirements throughout the development process. Requirements can be linked to other model elements such as use cases, components and test cases to ensure alignment between the system design and stakeholder requirements. In addition, the platform offers functions for managing requirement changes, versions and baselines. A further advantage of Enterprise Architect is that existing requirements systems from other manufacturers can be integrated via interfaces, thus enabling simple data exchange.

Generating Code

More advanced modellers can use Enterprise Architect to generate code from models. This allows the gap between design and implementation to be closed by automatically generating source code in various programming languages (Java, C#, C++, etc.). The templates for code generation can be customised to adhere to specific coding standards and best practices.

Simulation and Analysis

Enterprise Architect offers simulation and analysis functions for validating and verifying system designs. Users can simulate the behaviour of systems using various diagrams (state, activity and sequence). In addition, the tool offers integrated support for model validation, consistency checks and automated tests to detect errors and inconsistencies early on in the development process.

Collaboration and version control

Enterprise Architect supports collaboration between team members by providing features for simultaneous modelling, version control and team collaboration. Multiple users can work on the same models simultaneously, with changes seamlessly tracked and merged. Integration with version control systems such as Git, Subversion (SVN) and Team Foundation Server (TFS) ensures that model versions are managed effectively.

Documentation and traceability

A key argument in favour of using model-based development with Enterprise Architect is the fact that as the model evolves, documentation is created that is always up to date. Users can create customisable documentation templates to generate reports, specifications and user manuals directly from the model content. This ensures that the project documentation remains synchronised with the design and minimises the manual effort required for documentation tasks.

This also guarantees the traceability required by many standards and regulations, which ensures that prescribed requirements have actually been implemented in the developed system.

Integration with other tools

Enterprise Architect is an open modelling platform and is being deliberately developed with this in mind. This means that it can be seamlessly integrated into a wide range of development and project management tools that are commonly used in software development processes. This includes integration with IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) such as Visual Studio and Eclipse, issue tracking systems such as JIRA, collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Slack and more. This allows users to utilise existing tools and workflows within their development environments.

Contact Sales Support

Do you need professional support or do you have specific questions about our Enterprise Architect, Pro Cloud Server, Prolaborate tools or our Software as a Service offering? Our support team will be happy to help you at any time.

Application areas for Enterprise Architect

N

Systems Engineering

Modeling and analysis of complex systems, including hardware-software systems, IoT devices and embedded systems

N

Enterprise Architecture Management

Creation of enterprise architecture models to align business strategy with IT systems and applications

    N

    Data Modelling

    Design of database schemas, data models and data flows for effective management and analysis of company data

      N

      Software Development

      Design of software architectures, code generation and management of software requirements

      Start Modelling

      Our basic eLearning training ‘Start Modelling with Enterprise Architect’ offers you the perfect introduction to modelling. The training ends with a two-hour online Q&A session.

      New Features of Enterprise Architect 17

      Enterprise Architect 17 brings many new features to the popular and user-friendly modelling and design platform. It turns your models into a compass that supports your vision, the goals of your team and the development of your organisation.

      So upgrade to version 17 now and stay up to date.

      Data Warehouse Schemas

      N

      Database engineering support for data warehouse technologies

      Support for Data Warehouse Dateabases:

      • Amazon Redshift
      • Azure Synapse
      • Google BigQuery
      • Snowflake
      • Teradata
      N

      Profiles for creating schemas

      N

      UML profile contains stereotypes for each construct of the selected technology

      Enterprise Data Warehousing

      N

      Concepts, elements and relationships that are common in data warehousing systems

      N

      Better understanding of data use in the company

      N

      Comprehensive projects are given tangible business and technological value through modelling

      Perspectives, Patterns and Toolboxes

      N

      The data warehousing perspective shows only relevant views and models

      N

      The data warehousing patterns bring together templates and work examples for a quick start

      N

      Diagrams and toolboxes available for each design layer

      Time-Aware Modelling

      N

      Baseline comparison: Compare packages with models on different platforms and maintain the consistency of your architectural elements

      N

      Improved package control: Manage model packages efficiently and accurately and get a comprehensive analysis of your architectural components

      N

      Window Timelines: Create snapshots of diagrams, packages and elements to capture key elements in architecture development

      Diagram Smart Placements and Guides

      N

      Snap to multiple elements and element boundaries

      N

      Display of auxiliary lines

      N

      Maintaining the size

      External Data Integration

      N

      Linking of folder hierarchies in third-party tools

      N

      Hyperlink to architectural elements or diagrams in Web EA

      N

      ‘Synchronise external data’ window resolves conflicts if both external and local elements have changes

      Model based perspective sets

      N

      User-defined perspectives directly from the diagram

      N

      User interface that meets your specific needs and is orientated towards your role and tasks

      N

      Perspectives that accelerate Application Portfolio Management (APM), Business Capability Modelling (BCM) and Technology Portfolio Management (TPM)

      Profile Creation

      N

      Profile helper dialogue: Improved visibility of attributes and operations

      N

      Publication of UML profiles using unique profile IDs

      N

      MDG technology import: A new option ‘Import package as MDG technology’ is now available

      Code Miner

      N

      Import complex data, logic and rules specific to your project

      N

      Full range of Code Miner MFQL queries and actions

      N

      Works with Javascript and the model add-ins

      Office 2022 Visual Style

      N

      Office 2022 style is available in the start menu

      N

      Modern and sophisticated interface

      N

      Visually appealing and user-friendly presentation

      Accessibility and standards

      N

      Advanced accessibility functions

      N

      Safe navigation through dialogue labels and controls with Windows Narrator

      N

      Tree or list control element is read out

      Diagram creation by drag & drop

      N

      Simply drag classes, requirements or elements onto the connecting line

      N

      Drag triggers directly into the StateMachine diagram

      N

      Draw your diagrams simpler and more accurate with automated insertion

      Contact Sales Support

      Do you need professional support or do you have specific questions about our Enterprise Architect, Pro Cloud Server, Prolaborate tools or our Software as a Service offering? Our support team will be happy to help you at any time.