Business Cases

Enterprise Architect has a number of different mechanisms for creating and disseminating a Business Case, depending on the formality required. A business case articulates the benefits that will be achieved by taking a particular approach; it outlines possible solutions, analyzes constraints, risks and assumptions, and recommends a solution.

It is typically created as a document but when the change does not warrant the effort required to produce a document it can be created as a series of diagrams. Enterprise Architect has a Document Artifact element that helps the modeler to create a document directly inside the repository, which can be disseminated using Model Mail or saved as a document external to the repository. If the Business Case was created and is stored outside Enterprise Architect, for example in a corporate repository, a copy of the document can be saved inside the repository or an artifact can be created that hyperlinks to the external document.

This section lists the main tools available in Enterprise Architect that can be used to perform this business analysis technique. There is also a wide range of additional tools that a modeler might find suitable when applying the technique in a particular context. The complete list of tools is available from the topic Business Modeling Tools.

Artifact

An Artifact can be used as a placeholder for an external document. The Artifact element can be hyper-linked to the external document allowing it to be launched from within Enterprise Architect. This provides a convenient way to reference the document inside the model for example by linking other elements such as Requirements to the document.

Learn More: Artifact

Document Artifact

A Document Artifact can be used to create a Business Case, conveniently storing the document inside the repository. A template could be specified for the document, which could be reused for other initiatives. Other model elements that exemplify some aspect of the Business Case, such as features and solution options, can be dragged into the document as links.

Learn More: Document Artifact

Documentation

Enterprise Architect has a powerful and flexible documentation generator that can produce Docx and RTF Word Processor files, PDF and HTML reports. A Business Case could be generated directly from Enterprise Architect incorporating diagrams matrices and other artifacts into the document from the repository.

Learn More: Documentation

Model Mail

Model Mail is a convenient way to let people know about a Business Case. If a plan has been developed using a Document Artifact, this can be attached by inserting a link to the element using the 'Insert Quick Link' function. Any other material such as diagrams and matrices can also be attached in the same way.

Learn More: Model Mail