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Design Ribbon

The Design Ribbon is used to develop and visualize a model by creating diagrams, matrices and lists of important aspects of the system. Requirements and other specifications can be created and viewed and, regardless of the technology or language of expression, compelling representations can be created, viewed and tied together to form either powerful blueprints of a system to be implemented or documentation of an existing system.

Panels

Panel

Description

See also

Package

The 'Package' panel provides facilities to create and manage folders (Packages). New models can be added that typically contain a number of other Packages. These Packages form the structure of the model and can be used to group elements, diagrams or other Packages. A Package can also be viewed as a list of elements that will include other Packages, or as a Gantt chart describing the allocation of resources to the elements in the Package.

Using the Package Panel

Diagram

The 'Diagram' panel contains a set of facilities for creating and managing diagrams and the elements they contain. Diagrams are a powerful way of presenting and visualizing a model's elements and their connections. They can be enhanced by a range of overlays that transform the diagram into an expressive view such as a Kanban board, a Roadmap diagram, or swimlanes that allow elements to be allocated to different aspects such as responsibility or ownership. A diagram can also be viewed as a list of elements or as a Gantt chart describing the allocation of resources to the elements.

Using the Diagram Panel

Element

The 'Element' panel provides facilities to manage the elements that are the building blocks of models. Elements can be created and specified with attributes and operations. Scenarios can be added and Decision Tables defined.

Using the Element Panel

Impact

The 'Impact' panel provides a set of tools for viewing how elements are related to each other in the repository. While diagrams provide one way of visualizing the relationships, the Traceability window, the Relationship Matrix and the Gap Analysis Matrix present the information in a compelling and often more appealing format. The matrices allow visual analysis to be performed and they can be exported to Spreadsheets if more detailed analysis is required.

Using the Impact Panel

Tools

The 'Tools' panel is a collection of powerful tools for working with elements and Packages. These tools can be used to create business or technical level specifications of elements from business rules and requirements to technology descriptions. They can be used to manipulate data models with live connections to databases, and to transform a model from a one format or technology to another. Snapshots of models can be taken and comparisons made to the current model.

Using the Tools Panel

Add-Ins

The Add-Ins panel provides access to the facilities of each Add-In that is enabled in Enterprise Architect.

Using the Add-Ins Panel

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