Hi,
I recently used Aris Express in a project, and in general the experience was very good.. have some ideas for improvements that I'd like to share. I answered the Aris Express survey, but I thought it might be interesting to discuss ideas here as well, and perhaps I have overlooked functionality that is already there?. Anyway, here is my wish-list:
- BPMN support (I know it's coming)
- Swimlanes. I understand this should come with BPMN as well (also for EPC diagrams, right?). For now, I've used the solution suggested in the forum - using large activity objects with a different color as swimlanes. One problem with that is that you have to use "group" functionality to attach role objects to the swimlane, but this is probably a bug?
- Relative paths when linking models (so that you can easily distribute a set of models containing links)
- User-defines properties
- Auto-numbering of objects (some people want this as a way to refer to model objects from external documents)
- Improved auto layout/alignment capabilities. Especially, the "center" functionality would be easier to use if you could center all selected objects with respect to the one selected first - some other tools have this. Also, the auto routing of connections should be improved.
- Easier way to indicate that an activity is linked to a "sub process". I usually show the link attribute and resize, so that only the icon is visible, but I would like a simpler way to do this.
- The fragment functionality is a great idea, but how can I reuse my fragments across models?
I understand that I can't expect to get everything in a free tool though :-).
Jon.
Hi Jon,
swimlanes will only be available for BPMN. In the end, we will have a non-swimlane process model (EPC) and a swimlane model (BPMN 2).
User defined properties are most probably not going to be added, as they are a feature of our professional offerings. We have kids to feed, so we can't give away everything for free ;-)
The auto-numbering feature sounds interesting. Could you explain in more detail what you are looking for? Do you want some kind of identifier assigned to each object?
Fragments should work across models. Of course, you can't use an EPC fragment in an organisationl chart, because the objects are just not allowed there. Or did I miss something here?
By the way, have you already filled in the ARIS Express survey?
Cheers,
Sebastian
Hi Sebastian,
swimlanes: OK, i thought these would be available for EPC as well. So we have to continue using the method described here for adding swimlanes in EPC. As I said, role objects are not properly "embedded" in the "swimlane"/activity object, so that when the swimlane is moved, the role object doesn't follow. Hopefully this can be fixed.
Auto-numbering: Yes, this was meant as an identifier. Sometimes you want to document the models in a separate document, so you need a way to identify each relevant object. (I don't really like this way of working myself, I prefer adding descriptions directly in the model and then generate documentation from the tool). I'm thinking of a simple feature where each object has an identifier property, and a sequence number is generated for each selected object (you probably don't always want all - e.g. not swimlanes) in a model. You probably need to be able to specify a prefix for all identifiers for one diagram (in norder to distinguish objects in separate diagrams), and the identifier should possibly be editable.
Fragments across models: Yes, seems to work fine. I had some problems with that earlier, but probably did something wrong.
And yes, I answered the survey :-).
Thanks,
Jon.
Hi Jon,
the identifier concept you describe is available in our professional tools...
About fragments: Sometimes, you like to copy over a fragments such as a custom diagram header. On a first glance, you can't use fragments, because the fragment won't show up in another model type. But you can copy & paste the header to the other model type and add it again to the fragments. In that way it becomes available in another model type, too.
Another question: Do you have any plans to add general model import/export capabilities (e.g. XPDL, BPMN 2.0 serialization) to the "BPMN version" of Aris Express? I think that with all the (free) modeling tools available now, model exchange is becoming increasingly important.
Jon.
If “entry” means learning Aris/BPM, then perhaps not. I was comparing Aris Express to other free modelers like BizAgi, and my idea was that it could also be used for simple, practical modeling, but without model exchange capabilities you have to be careful, because you cannot decide to switch to another tool later.
Jon.
Hi Charise,
you could do us a favor: please open an own thread for such questions please, because this thread is about Express experiences...
To your question: maybe embedded help within ARIS can give you support here. In the Business Architect, just switch to the Administration module (right hand side) and have a look to the properties of a database (you need to be logged in). On the property pages, there is one for the "identifier".
Bye,
Frank
