The MDG Integration for Microsoft Office allows teams to seamlessly leverage information
authored in Microsoft Office Documents from within Enterprise Architect taking advantage
of features such as Traceability, Enhanced Collaboration, Model Driven Design and much more.
The demonstration will begin with the document containing a Table of Requirements. Each Row will
become a separate Model Element in Enterprise Architect. The document structure itself is
described in a Profile that ships with the MDG Integration for Microsoft Office. It is however
possible to create your own custom Profiles that reflect documents within your own organization.
Let's see how easy it is to import a Word Document into Enterprise Architect. The Word Document on
screen lists seven Functional Requirements in a Table. I intend on demonstrating, how to use
an existing Profile to automatically import each of these Requirements into Enterprise Architect.
The Word Importer will automatically create our
link Documents Packages Diagrams and Model Elements in Enterprise Architect.
To open the Word Importer select Extensions | Microsoft Office Import | Word document.
Select the document that you wish to import and choose from one of the Profiles that ships with
the Word Importer. For this example we shall select the option; Quick Import Requirements Table.
Provide a suitable Package Name. This Package will be used to store your Diagrams,
Link Documents and Model Elements. The three Checkboxes allow us to
include the original Document in the Model Repository as a Linked Document ensuring,
it is never lost. You can automatically add a Diagram and enable Synchronization.
If you're unable Synchronization the Word Importer will write sync information to a
temporary file. Helping to ensure that the original Document is not altered in any way.
Preview the Document content to ensure, it will produce expected results. You can look at your
Package Structure Element Names and associated Notes. Press “Import” to quickly and easily
upgrade your Office Documents and Enterprise Architect has automatically created Packages
Diagrams and Model Elements for each of the Requirements. Now I'd like to extend this example
to look at a more complex document structure that includes Connectors, Functional Requirements in a
Table and Non-Functional Requirements listed as in line text. The Profile Manager is used
to build and manage Profiles to better understand, how Profiles work. Let's examine a System Defined
Profile in a little more detail. I'm going to use the Extensions Menu to bring up the Profile
Manager for Word. Although it is not possible to edit System Defined Profiles you can select save
as and then edit the subsequent copy. Let's view the Bookstore Profile in a little more detail to see,
how it actually works. Each Profile needs to have a Name a brief Description. They must
also refer to a Sample Document. The Sample Document is used to determine the underlying
Document Structure and map Elements inward to their corresponding EA Element Types.
For example Heading 1 and Heading 2 Styles in Word are mapped to Packages. While Heading 3 is mapped
to a Requirement Element. The Property Mapping section allows you to link Document Property
Names such as Priority, Status, ID and signed off to their corresponding EA Element Properties.
So when you import your Requirements. They'll have the appropriate Priority Colors.
The Table Mapping allows you to map the contents of a Table to their corresponding EA Elements.
It's all the information that you require in order to build a Model from your Word Document.
Switching to our Word Document we have all of our Functional Requirements listed at the
start of the Document in a Table. While all of our Non-Functional Requirements are listed as inline
Text at the end of our document. We've used a variety of different styles including Title,
Heading 1, Heading 2 and Heading 3 to structure our Document. All Requirement
Documents within the organization need to adhere to this standard.
In our Non-Functional Requirements. You can see Priority, Status ID and Signed Off.
All these Properties can be automatically generated from Non-Functional Requirements
within Enterprise Architect. I'm now going to use “Save As” to create a new Profile.
Now I can edit this Profile even though I was unable to edit the System Defined Profile.
I'm going to start by changing our sample document. I'm also going to select the Checkbox
that indicates my data has Connectors Information. Basically the System Profile had nearly everything
just about right. It didn't talk about Connectors. I'm going to add some additional information to
the Profile so that it can manage Connectors. If you remember our Functional Requirements at
the beginning of the Word Document. There was a Column called Connected Requirements. I'm going
to use that Word Column in the Table in order to set up Connector Information.
All I need to do is select the Column, the Direction, the Connector Type and the Properties.
Looking at our Non-Functional Requirements rather than being in a Table the Words part of are used to
describe the Connector. So this time I'm going to select my Word Column and select
part of set the direction. This time it's an Aggregation Link. Finally I'm going to select
the appropriate Property. I've now added two types of Connectors automatically to our Profile.
If I click the “Next” button it allows us to set the Property Values,
the Table Values in the Hierarchy. Once you've previewed the results. You can generate your new Profile.
The last step is to import My Document using the new Profile, we've just created.
We now have the ability to import Functional and Non-Functional Requirements with Connectors in
a matter of minutes. All the Status Colors are displayed on our Diagrams and our Connectors
are clearly labeled. Helping us to provide improved Traceability. So long as all future
documents have the same underlying structure as your sample document. This process can be
reused on all of your Requirements Documents for years to come. It's worthwhile investing time in
getting the Profile right in the very first time. if I switch to my Word Document I can
see “Add Users” has a Status of Validated, while “Report on User Account” has a Status of Proposed.
Looking at my Diagram I can see that these Status Colors have been automatically updated.
I can confirm this by checking the Properties of each Requirement Element.
By looking at our EA Model, we can see a number of different Diagrams have been created.
Lots of Requirement Elements have been, Packages have been created for
Functional Requirements and our Non-Functional Requirements, all the work has been done for us.
The Office Integration Tool also supports integration between Microsoft PowerPoint and
Enterprise Architect. Imagine the frustration of having to rewrite a presentation every
time your Enterprise Architect Model changes. The new MDG Integration for
Microsoft Office helps to alleviate this problem allowing you to import Diagrams,
Text Descriptions and Table Information directly into your slides. If your Enterprise Architect
Model changes, you can automatically synchronize those changes and update
your presentation accordingly.
You no longer have to rewrite your presentation every time your Model changes.
I shall now demonstrate how this integration works.
On screen we have PowerPoint presentation containing four slides.
We need to access information from our EA Model should be included in our presentation.
To do this select the Enterprise Architect Tab from the Ribbon Interface.
A similar Enterprise Architect Tab can be found for each of the Office products,
which allows you to seamlessly connect to a server or an EAP file.
For this example we're going to open a local a EAP file called SRS.
Which contains our Software Requirements Specification.
The Project Browser is now displayed on the right-hand side of the screen providing instant
access to Model Information including Diagrams, Packages and Table data. You can drag Items
from the Project Browser and place them onto your PowerPoint slide. The system prompts you to insert
Model Information as Text or Details in a Table. For this example I'll select Details in Table.
Upon adding the Table Information I can see that one of our BAs has failed to
enter an appropriate description for Requirement number 12.
I'll need to update my Enterprise Architect Model accordingly.
If I drag a Diagram onto a slide I'm prompted to insert the Information as Text or an Image.
I'm going to grab “Manage Users” and place it onto the screen.
I'm going to select Diagram Image as my type.
The first thing I notice is that the Diagram contains a Requirement that needs to be deleted.
Finally the Project Browser contains a Package called Index. I do not like this Package because
it's not descriptive enough. I can add any Package or Diagram as a Text Element in PowerPoint.
I can apply formatting to the Heading later, but for now I'd like to update my Enterprise Architect Model.
There are several changes that need to be made before I could present this slide
deck to management. Switching to EA I can update the Notes for Requirement number 12 that were
listed in the Take Orders Package. I'm going to provide a more meaningful description in the Notes
section of this Element. Please remember to save all of your changes, before you sync your Model.
I now switch to Manage Users. I can delete the unnecessary Requirement in the Manage Users Package.
Remember to press Ctrl S to save any changes to your Diagram.
Finally I can rename the Index Package choosing a Name more descriptive and meaningful.
Now that I've saved all of my changes.
I can return to PowerPoint and synchronize all of my changes.
This helps to ensure that I do not need to rewrite my PowerPoint presentation every time our Model
changes saving both time and money. I hit the arrows to sync with the Model.
Once the synchronization is complete. You can see the Name of the Package has automatically been updated.
Looking at my Manage Users Diagram the miscellaneous Requirement has been removed and
the Notes for my Requirement number 12 have been updated accordingly.
The Office Importer allows you to take content authored in Microsoft Excel
and automatically generate in an Enterprise Architect Diagram.
In this example I'll demonstrate. How to import a series of Use Cases from a Worksheet
and then link to existing Requirements within Enterprise Architect.
On screen we have a number of Use Cases stored in an Excel Spreadsheet.
I intended on creating a Profile to map each Column to its corresponding EA Element Type
including hierarchical information and Connectors to existing Requirements.
Using the Profile Manager for Excel.
Simply enter a Name and Description for your Profile.
Select a sample Document and the corresponding Worksheet
within that sample document that you wish to use.
For this example my Spreadsheet contains Connector and Element Type information.
So I'll select the appropriate Checkboxes. However you could manually set
these Values if required. Switching to Excel the Requirements Column outlines Connectors,
while the Type Column indicates the respective EA Element Type.
The Wizard steps you through the Process with simple Checkboxes
allowing you to select appropriate Information from convenient Drop-down Menus.
In our Profile we can identify which Column contains the Type
Information and add the appropriate Realization Connectors as required.
The next step is to map each Column to its corresponding EA Element Property.
ID gets mapped to Alias, Name to Name, Description gets mapped to Notes, Complexity gets mapped
to the EA Element Property of Complexity and Package gets mapped to ParentName.
We can now preview and create our Profile. We can now use this Profile to import any
Spreadsheet that conforms to a similar document structure.
If we preview the results. We can see a number of different Packages including Manage Users,
Manage Inventory, Take Orders and Fulfill Orders.
We can specify Connector mappings and we can also add Additional Packages.
I know that all of my Software Requirements are already stored within the Model.
So I can automatically link to those additional Packages.
Now if I bring up the Traceability Window on the “Login” Use Case.
I can automatically see how this realizes “Secure Access” and “Validate User”.
We've now created a Profile and use that Profile to import a series of Use Cases
into Enterprise Architect establishing Connections to existing Requirements.
For more information on the MDG Integration for Microsoft Office please visit www.sparxsystems.com