Feature Comparison
CAPABILITY OTHER TOOLS
Tool foundation Based on either business process
modeling or evolving from simpler
drawing tools, most other tools are
not designed specifically to model
architectures. Rather they have
been extended in response to
architectural contingencies.
Architectural Other tools use specialised models
modeling which are refined to reflect a
capabilities vendor's own approach or that of a
popular framework. Invariably, these
preset models have redundant
elements and properties, and are ill-
fitting to many organizations. The
various levels of abstraction are
usually poorly integrated.
Support for Most tools claim to provide support
Enterprise for at least one framework; TOGAF,
Architecture DoDAF (C4ISR), FEAF and TEAF.
frameworks and The majority of tools tend to favor a
patterns Zachman approach - which is little
more than a formalized
categorization of artifacts.
Frameworks are fine... but limited.
Architectural All tools in the market use 2D
diagramming diagrams to represent various
capabilities elements of an architecture.
Typically the types of diagrams that
can be used are predetermined
(IDEF, UML, BPML). With some
tools, changes to objects in one
diagram do not propagate through
the architecture.
ABACUS
Based on, and extending, the
concepts of architectual description
languages, ABACUS has at its core a
formal and rigorous architectural
model. This solid core provides a
foundation for features that other
tools cannot match.
ABACUS provides a generic model
where components AND connections
are first order elements. The model is
structural (hierarchical), typed,
supremely flexible, highly scalable,
and can be extended to cater for any
architecture. It supports multiple
versions of architectures, making it
the only tool specifically designed to
perform "what-if", "gap" and
"scenario" analysis.
ABACUS does not follow or prescribe
any frameworks, patterns or
solutions. Rather, it provides the
means to create any of the artifacts
required by any of the various
frameworks as libraries of pre-defined
templates. For example, the tool
provides a template that supports the
required elements outlined in the
Zachman framework and Service
Oriented Architecture (SOA) patterns.
ABACUS provides a completely
flexible approach to creating and
maintaining diagrams. A diagram is a
view of the architectural model, and
changes in either one are always
reflected in the other - including
changes in hierarchy. Standard
diagram types are provided and are
used to encourage consistency.
Process analysis Many tools focus on the business
portion of enterprise architecture,
and provide limited "token-based"
animations of business processes.
Architectural Without rigorous supporting models,
analysis not just analysing the complexity of
observation enterprises, at all levels, is beyond
the ability of all other tools. What
analysis they do provide is strictly in
terms of 'matrix' charts, summation
metrics and dependency tracking.
Architectural Enterprises and their IT systems are
visualisation extremely complex structures.
Trying to convey that structure in
diagrams, as with other tools, does
little to aid understanding of the
enterprise. Even with hyperlinking,
different diagram types and the
number of diagrams means that
architectures remain unfathomable.
General tool features Other tools commonly tout,
compliance to drawing standards
(BMPL,UML,IDEF), support for
frameworks (TOGAF, DoDAF), open
database standards, multi-user
support, web-support, the ability to
generate schema and code, and
various importers and exporters.
What they fail to provide is a
synchronised approach to modeling
and completely capturing the
enterprise architecture.
Value for money Dedicated EA tools start at about
$10,000 per seat, and complete
licence packages with training run
well into 6 figures.
Further information: sales@avolutioncorp.com
www.avolutioncorp.com (703) 941 0001
ABACUS uses discrete event
simulation to comprehensibly
evaluate the performance of an entire
architecture, not simply processes.
With a solid model, ABACUS is able
to manage and analyze architectures
at all layers, as one complete
architecture. It not only simulates
performance, but can calculate
emergent properties and metrics such
as total cost of ownership, reliability,
openness, modularity and security.
ABACUS uses hyperlinked 2D and
3D visualization. Hierarchical 3D
views allow for dynamic exploration of
entire architectures. Size, color and
shape of elements can be tailored to
reflect properties of interest; e.g.
using the color red to signify high
utilization.
ABACUS provides all the usual and
expected tool features, including:
importers, exporters, scripting,
custom reports, custom charts,
publishing to the web, and an
enterprise edition. Additionally
ABACUS provides patented
techniques for visualizing, analyzing,
evaluating and evolving a complete
enterprise architecture.
The standard ABACUS toolset is
available for less than $2,500 per
seat.
architecture-based evoluti on