Architecture Partitioning

An enterprise of any appreciable size will typically have a number of architects working at different levels and on different Strategic, Tactical and Solution architectures. The architects will be part of programs of work and projects, which could cut across the other architecture levels and groupings. To ensure that the architects' work is not duplicated or in conflict, Architecture Partitioning is required. This forms part of Architecture Governance that attempts to ensure that the architecture resources are working efficiently and effectively, and that the architectures can be integrated to create the best result for the Enterprise.

Enterprise Architect allows all architecture work at an enterprise, segment and solution level to be housed in the one repository, which facilitates the governance and integration of the architectures. The Project Browser can be set up to ensure that enterprise level notions can be modeled and reused across any number of separate architectures, which helps to ensure that the architectures can be aligned and integrated. Model Views are useful to create views of cross cutting concerns such as reuse or shared architectural representations or stakeholders' views. A Roadmap diagram could be used to represent the duration and time sequencing of architectures, which will help manage the dependencies. Organization Charts can be used to understand the way teams and resources are allocated to architecture work.

This section lists the main tools available in Enterprise Architect that can be used to perform Architecture Partitioning. 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 topics: Meet the Enterprise Architecture Tools and Additional Enterprise Architecture Tools.

Model Views

Model Views is a facility that allows a modeler to create lists of elements in alternative views to the way they are organized in the Project Browser. This mechanism is particularly useful for Architectural Partitioning where it might be expedient to create lists of cross-cutting elements and architectures independent of the structure defined in the Project Browser. Any number of Favorite folders can be created and grouped into one or more higher level folders. This provides a mechanism for manually defining lists of elements by simply dragging elements from the Project Browser into a Favorites folder and ordering them using the up and down arrow keys in the toolbar. Alternatively, elements can be listed using a built-in or user defined search that can be used to select elements from anywhere in the repository based on properties such as Complexity, Version and Phase, or user defined properties expressed in Tagged Values.

Learn More: Model Views

Roadmap Diagrams

The Roadmap is an overlay that can be applied to any diagram and that can be conveniently enabled or disabled. The overlay presents a timeline that is used to indicate the starting time, duration and finishing time of important phases in the lifetime of the elements on the diagram. It can be used to show the duration of each of the architectural initiatives that will assist with understanding the dependencies as part of Architecture Partitioning. Any diagram object can appear on a Roadmap diagram, including Packages that could be used as the organizing element for an Architecture. The appearance and properties of the timeline can be altered to set the Units, Tick Spacing (Year, Month and so on), Start and Finish time, Colors, Fonts and more. The phases on the elements can be configured in a Diagram Legend, allowing names and colors to be defined dynamically.

Learn More: Roadmap Diagram

Organizational Chart

The organization chart is useful for understanding the makeup of the architectural team, the reporting lines and the structure of the governance bodies. This will help ensure that the governance side of the architectural Partitioning is being managed and that there is only a single team assigned to an architecture and to get an understanding of the distribution of the work load and the team make-up and the boundaries between architecture work.

Learn More: Organizational Chart

Project Browser

The Project Browser can be used to create a series of Packages that can form the structural basis for Architecture Partitioning. The placeholders can be created for Strategic, Tactical and Solution architectures, and within these Packages the architectures themselves can be placed. The arrangement of the Packages will be determined by an individual architecture program.

Learn More: Project Browser

Traceability Window

The Traceability Window can be used to view the relationships between the architectures and the elements that make up those architectures. This is a useful mechanism to show the dependencies between parts of the architectures and to show where there are opportunities to reuse a part of one architecture in another architecture or to partition out a separate architecture. These relationships are visible through the Traceability window.

Learn More: Traceability Window