About ER/Studio Business Architect

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ER/Studio Business Architect is used for creating graphical representations of your business from the core concepts that describe the business, to the processes detailing how your business operates. You can model business processes and how those processes use data. The Business Process Modeling is based on the BPMN standard.

The Conceptual Modeling provides intuitive ways to outline subject areas and concepts that can then drive the creation of detailed data models. The Conceptual Modeling uses high-level representations allowing for top-down database design.

Conceptual Modeling

Functionality Description
Conceptual Model Creation Support for high-level conceptual modeling using elements such as subject areas, business entities, interactions, and relationships.
Relationship Traceability Model links between any conceptual or process modeling elements allowing you to trace relationships between models.
Conceptual Model Export Conceptual models can be exported to ER/Studio to become the foundation for creating ER/Studio logical data models. The export uses pre-defined mapping.

Business Process Modeling

Functionality Description
Process Model Creation Support for straightforward process modeling that uses standard elements such as sequences, tasks, swimlanes, start events, and gateways.
BPMN Compliance Optional automatic validation of process diagrams to ensure compliance with the BPMN specification and prevent the addition of non-compliant modeling elements.
Embedded sub-process support for functional decomposition Independent sub-processes and embedded collapsible sub-processes can be included within a business process to allow for maximum flexibility in diagramming, while still ensuring a workable visual diagram.

Impact Analysis Reporting

Functionality Description
Multi-object, Multi-level Reporting Impact analysis reports can be generated to show interrelationships between process, data, stewardship, business rules, diagram usage, heritage, connecting objects etc.
Report Filtering Impact analysis reports can filter based on type of relationship, object type, or text strings including wildcard matching.

Usage (CRUD) Reporting

Functionality Description
Link Process with Data The relationships between business processes and data objects can be modeled to identify what processes create, read, update, or delete data objects.
CRUD Reporting CRUD reports identify which processes affect which data, and what affects they have. Reports are available in a straightforward spreadsheet view.
Report Filtering Reports can be shown across object types, or can be filtered based on individual object types such as tasks or business processes, allowing users to drill down based on specific requirements.

Business Artifact Modeling

Functionality Description
External Data Objects Support for data objects which are general data storage constructs that can represent databases, file systems, or other data storage mechanisms.
Business Elements Captures business terms that can later be used to enforce naming standards or as the foundation of logical data models.
Business Rules Incorporate policies, practices, or formulas related to business processes as part of the process model elements and metadata processes, allowing users to drill down based on specific requirements.
Business Units Create and incorporate business units into process models such as sales, human resources, or accounting.
Stewardship Support for inclusion of organizational roles such as 'DBA' or 'Sales Manager' to incorporate ownership for specific processes or tasks.
Links Create generic associations between objects for impact analysis and CRUD reporting.

User Interface

Functionality Description
Organizational Hierarchies ER/Studio Business Architect allows you to organize your information to align with your business strategy, allowing for a Project-based tree hierarchy which can group multiple model types and diagrams into intuitive projects to allow for alignment with business initiatives or organizations.
Flexible Interface Full support for multiple property editors, tab-based navigation, undo/redo, collapsible nested tree views, zoom-based navigation, and keyboard shortcuts.
Flexible object formatting and display options Ability to customize a wide variety diagram options including line width, color and fill options, font displays, line connector points, line bend formats, etc.
Grid Editing A table-based alternative to the hierarchical tree view, allowing the display of large numbers of objects or business rules in an easy to read format.
Publish Model to Web Automatically generate HTML views of your models to share with other people in your organization.

Import / Export

Functionality Description
Share Information Across Multiple Roles and Formats Can share process models among a broad range of user groups by exporting them into a wide variety of supported formats including xml, csv, html, pdf, rtf, and jpeg.
ER/Studio Import/Export Import and export ER/Studio Business Architect models for use as data assets or Conceptual diagrams.
Visio Import Configurable import capabilities let you import diagrams from Microsoft Visio.
Collaboration and Reporting Connect to ER/Studio Repository to share workspaces, diagrams, and models. Connect to ER/Studio Portal to explore and report on ER/Studio Business Architect objects in ER/Studio Repository. For more information, see Working with ER/Studio Repository.

Architecture

Functionality Description
Separation of Data and Display ER/Studio Business Architect is based on a metadata foundation that allows core data to be manipulated and displayed in a variety of formats, without requiring a picture or diagram, speeding performance and increasing knowledge transfer across multiple constituencies.
Object Reuse Core processes and enterprise objects can be reused across multiple diagrams, allowing for a single version of the truth across the organization.
Standards-Based ER/Studio Business Architect is based on industry standards: Eclipse-based, XML file formats with published Schema, and BPMN modeling notations.

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