Guillaume Finance

Importing requirements from Excel to Enterprise Architect with eaDocX for a model-driven approach to build the RFP response

eaDocX’s eaXL module makes it possible to import and export information between Excel and Sparx Enterprise Architect, e.g. requirements, classes (including attributes or methods), use cases, etc.

This article provides a feedback on a real-life experience where I used eaXL for a request for proposal (RFP): more than a hundred requirements have been imported into Enterprise Architect in order to carry the analysis and build the response with the aid and support of the model-driven approach. Steps involved to import the customer’s requirements are covered in this article.

Note: eaXL module for Excel support requires eaDocX Corporate edition.

Context

I recently worked on an RFP that included more than a hundred requirements organised by categories. Details of each requirement (description, reference, category) were provided in an Excel file that had to be completed and returned with our response and proposals.

Being given the task to analyse each requirement and assess the feasibility and complexity, I chose to build the response and capture all the elements within an Enterprise Architect modelling project.

Once a new Enterprise Architect project had been set up, the client’s requirements were imported via the following process:

Summary of the main steps from the above BPMN2 diagram:

• Step A: prior to run an import from Excel with eaDocX’s eaXL, an Excel file needs to be generated. To do so, eaXL export must be run with at least a single blank requirement from Enterprise Architect. This first step involves creating a couple of blank requirements in the model.
• Step B: run an eaXL export of the blank requirements from Enterprise Architect into a generated Excel file.
• Step C: populate the Excel file with the requirements provided by the client.
• Step D: import the client’s requirements from Excel to Enterprise Architect using eaXL.

D3. At this stage, blank requirements created in step A are deleted.

D4. Using a custom VB script in Enterprise Architect, each requirement is moved into a sub package, named after the Category Tagged Value. This is intended to simplify the organisation of requirements within the model.

• Result: requirements are grouped by category in the project tree.

Next steps: building the response and proposal, generate the Excel deliverable

Having all the RFP requirements in the modelling project, the analysis and elaboration of the answer can be carried out:

• Creating “response” stereotyped requirements and Feature elements. Associate these elements to the client’s requirements.
• Creating UML/BPMN diagrams to suggest an architecture, illustrate the solution or an option to one or several requirements.
• Assessing and updating the Feasibility tagged value for each requirement.
• Exporting results to Excel with eaXL.
• Generate the response and answer to the RFP in the Word format using eaDocX.

Conclusion

Enterprise Architect made it possible to efficiently carry out the analysis of a long list of requirements by building up the models with the solution’s elements, links between requirements of similar purpose, and realisation links between the RFP requirements and solution elements. Once the analysis had been completed, generating the Excel deliverable for the client only required a few minutes.

This Excel file was ready to be sent alongside a Word document generated with eaDocX, including a relationships matrix between requirements and system features to implement.

In case the RFP process has been successful, a model-driven approach provides the advantage of starting the project with an existing Enterprise Architect project.

The Excel import/export feature for Enterprise Architect available with eaDocX (eaXL module) can be used for many other purposes: importing requirements and use cases in the project, synchronise requirements with other tools via the Excel format, import business classes from Excel, etc.