Dunstan Thomas Consulting have been Sparx Systems Global Enterprise Architect (EA) training and solution partners for the past 15 years and over that time have been instrumental in delivering solutions to a variety of industries.
Our clients range from Waitrose and John Lewis Partnership in retail, Vodafone and EE in the Telecoms space, GE Aviation & EADS Astrium in the aviation sector, Allianz and Deutsche Bank in the financial sector and Transport for London, and London Fire Brigade in the public sector.
EA Model Insight is a service offered by Dunstan Thomas Consulting allowing you to apply our expertise to your modeling requirements, without the need for you to train your resources with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, ultimately saving you both time and money.
This service works by you engaging us to supplement your team with one of our consultants to carry out modelling on your behalf. The service is aimed primarily at organisations that may have domain knowledge but do not have modeling tools to work with and / or those that do not have the time to model effectively.
Our consultants will then engage with your teams either onsite, remotely or a combination of both to model for you using our tool of choice, Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect.
Using this service, there are several ways in which we can help you with modeling:
A Meta Model defines the elements that can be used to build models together with the connectors between them. Specifically, a set of rules which defines what elements can be used on which diagram and which connectors are valid between pairs of elements.
In addition a look and feel can be applied to elements and connectors in addition to data that can be captured for each element and connector.
The benefit that a custom meta model brings to an organisation is that models can be constructed that conform precisely to that organisations modeling requirements.
Enterprise Architect has a powerful technology known as MDG which allows the specification of a meta model. Our consultants will work with an organisation to define their meta model requirements, implement the meta model as an Enterprise Architect MDG and provide documentation on how that organisation can maintain the meta model.
By taking advantage of EA Model Insight you can use our Consultants to help you translate your models captured using other tools into Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, using your notation of choice.
Some examples include translating models from:
Using BPMN 2.0 and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect our Consultants will work with you to capture and document your business processes to your required levels of detail.
This modeling can either use the full BPMN 2.0 suite of diagrams or a subset of your choice e.g. collaboration and process diagrams only.
Using UML and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect our Consultants will work with you to capture and document your software design to your required levels of detail.
This modeling can either use the full UML suite of diagrams or a subset of your choice e.g. Use Case, Component, Class, Activity and Sequence.
Using ArchiMate 3.0 and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect our Consultants will work with you to capture and document your enterprise architecture to your required levels of detail.
This typically models a defined vertical slice of the enterprise architecture utilising elements from Motivation and Strategy, Business Layer, Application Layer and Technology Layer.
Particular emphasis is placed upon inter-layer relationships and the subsequent production of impact analysis diagrams.
Using SysML 1.5 and EA our Consultants will work with you to capture and document your system engineering projects to your required levels of detail. This follows standard MBSE practice encapsulating the four pillars of SysML, namely:
Particular emphasis is placed upon the creating and use of element libraries for re-usable SysML elements such as Blocks, Value Types, Interface Blocks etc.
Our Consultants can also work with you on the more challenging aspects of Systems Engineering Modelling, namely:
Our EA model health checks usually take the form of a two-day engagement that will allow us to gather an understanding of the current state of your modelling activities and your intended future use of the tool.
The DT team will join you for a fact-finding workshop to gather the following information:
With this information gathered, the DT team will then try to gather an understanding of where you want to be with EA in the future:
Based on the information gathered from your team during the workshop the Dunstan Thomas will then prepare a roadmap report containing the following:
Dunstan Thomas Consulting can provide development services for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect (EA) in the following areas:
Typically working from a client supplied metamodel presented and analysed during a workshop between Dunstan Thomas Consulting and the client, Dunstan Thomas Consulting can provide the development services to implement this metamodel including:
The deliverables for MDG Development are typically:
The starting point for script development is usually via a client request who has identified procedures or workflows with EA that could be automated via the use of scripts. These procedures or workflows would be presented and discussed during a workshop between Dunstan Thomas Consulting and the client. Dunstan Thomas Consulting would then develop the script and all accompanying documentation.
The script would be demonstrated to the client during a workshop after which any modifications to the script identified in the workshop would be implemented.
Such scripts can be, but not limited to:
Commencing with a workshop to discover the client’s documentation requirements and to gather examples of the documents to be produced, Dunstan Thomas Consulting would design and develop all Templates, Styles and Cover Pages for HTML or DOCX/PDF publication. For the DOCX/PDF publication Dunstan Thomas Consulting would also develop and Scripts or SQ Queries that maybe necessary to drive the templates.
Dunstan Thomas Consulting can also develop scripts that automate the publication to HTML, DOCX/PDF.
The deliverables would be:
The development of an Add-in for EA is a full scale development project and would commence with a workshop (or workshops) to elicit the client’s requirements. These requirements would be documented and presented back to the client, and once total agreement on these requirements has been obtained, then development using Agile methods would begin.
The deliverables would be:
Should remote modeling be required then you must be using a Cloud Repository with a profile for a modeling user setup prior to the commencement of modeling. An alternative to this approach is that the modeling activities can be carried out totally offline and then transferred into your repository following review.
Telephone: +44 (0)23 9282 2254
Email: info@dthomas.co.uk
Dunstan Thomas Consulting is part of the Dunstan Thomas Group of companies that specialise in the delivery of innovative technology solutions.