EA Tool Evaluation

Blog 10
=======
Write about EA tools. What do you think of them? Are they really useful? How about cost?

What should be considered in evaluating an EA tool?

The evaluation process should consist of two dimensions: the basic functionality of the tool, and the utility of the tool to different professionals.

When reviewing an EA tool’s basic functionality, the tools basic functionality should be examined in the following areas:

Methodologies and Models;

Model Development Interface;

Tool Automation;

Extendibility and Customization;

Analysis and Manipulation;

Repository;

Deployment Architecture;

Costs and Vendor Support;

Architecture Results.

When considering the tool’s utility to different professionals, captures the fitness for purpose of the tool, and describes how useful the tool would be to particular professionals. The types of professionals considered were:

Enterprise Architects;

Solution Architects

Strategic Planners / Management;

Enterprise Program Managers

Software Architects / engineers

External Partners.

After the evaluation in all these factors, the architect should fill in the following blanks.

Model Development Interface:

The overall quality of the model development interface is an important characteristic of any enterprise architecture development tool. The interface must support the modeling activity well, and must also be intelligently structured, make good use of limited screen space, be logical and consistent to use and navigate.

Tool Automation:

Developing and populating enterprise architecture models is often the most time consuming part of the enterprise architecture development activity. By providing support for automating parts of the enterprise architecture development processes, a tool can help speed up the overall development activity.

Extendibility and Customization:

This functional group captures how well an enterprise architecture tool can be modified to meet the unique enterprise architectural requirements of a unique organization. Enterprise Architecture tools may support customization by allowing users to add new modeling approaches or to modify the modeling approaches already supported by the tool.

Analysis and manipulation:

Analysis support provided by a tool may simply examine how correct or complete the model is, relative to a particular modeling approach used. More sophisticated analysis support may allow the model to be interrogated in some way, or be subjected to particular analysis methods. Analysis support may include the ability to compare different versions of models, allowing current and to-be enterprise architectures to be compared. Manipulation functions capture a tool’s ability to change the way the models are represented and viewed. This may include the ability to view models from particular perspectives.

Repository:

Most of the tools on the market make use of some kind of data repository to hold the developed models. The functions provided by the tool’s repository have a significant impact on the overall functionality, scalability and extendibility of an enterprise architecture tool.

Deployment Architecture:

A tool’s deployment architecture describes the tool’s software structure and software implementation. Generally, enterprise architecture tools tend to adopt one of two deployment architectures: either a single user/single client structure, or a simple two-tier client/server structure.

Costs and Vendor Support:

Also important in the overall cost of adopting an enterprise architecture tool, are the cost and type of maintenance and/or after sales support contracts offered by the vendor.