Untold Tale/Story of Mr. Assigned Connections (ARIS Hidden Secret or What?)

adnan shahab on January 25, 2011

One day, I was browsing through UMG repository then suddenly I came across this strange symbol in relationship window.

I hope you have noticed what I am trying to convey. The regular connections are shown like these:

I put some thought on this strange phenomenon and assumed whenever I make assignment to a symbol then symbols on assignee model (model which is to be assigned) become some how related to the symbol on which assignment is made. For example on VACD diagram if you assign an EPC Model(say M) to a Value Added Chain Symbol(say S) then all the functions that are modeled in model M become assigned connection to Symbol S i.e. an implicit connection is made from Symbol S to all the child symbols in EPC. Well not exactly, as you know every regular connection has an occurrence but this special connection which is shown as {} in relationship window has no occurrence. I noticed same phenomenon in Cluster/Data Symbol in ERM model and if it is being assigned a model of type ERM then ARIS also "assign" some connections to the parent symbol like what happened in VACD symbols.

But when I assigned a model to Application System Type symbol in a diagram then no "assigned relationship" appear.

I searched in ARIS Method Help to know how many symbol type and model type will behave like this but could not find any help.

So right now there is no way to know what is the rule behind "Assigned Connections".

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5 Replies

Robert Stowman on January 25, 2011

Hi Adnan,

I was able to find some info in the 'Help' file by putting in the words 'relationships tab.' All the different relationship symbols are listed there.

Best Regards,

Bob

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Robert Stowman on January 25, 2011

Hi Adnan,

Still trying to put more detail around this (now that you have made me curious) :-)

It seems that when you assign a model to an object (such as the 'Credit Application' object), then the "Credit Application' object becomes 'is process oriented superior' to all function objects on that assigned model (one of the assigned models for that object, for example, is named 'TO-BE_Propose financing'). Since there is not a 'real' connection that exists between these objects it is thus considered that the relationship is implied or, 'implicit.'

This same logic applies to the 'Cluster' object in your second example, it's just a different 'implicit' relationship between the objects.

I hope that answers your question Sir.

Best Regards,

Bob

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adnan shahab Author on January 26, 2011
Hi Robert,

The information you provide does make sense. But I wonder how many symbol types and model types will behave like this.

So far, I can count two:

Value Added Chain Symbol and if Assigned Model Type is EPC

Cluster/Data Model Symbol and if Assigned Model Type is ERM

...

...

...

...

My simple question is:
"Is there any documentation on this or ARIS Users need to discover it on their own".
Wild Guess: Even members in ARIS Technical Team do not know about this and this information is lost.
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JM

Jutta Michely on January 26, 2011

Hi Adnan,

the relationships you mentioned are implicite relationships. Normally, they are defined between object types (in a "superior" model) and selected object types in an assigned model. In some cases these relationships are symbol-dependent.

Example: The connection "is process-oriented superior" between a "normal" function and the symbol "process interface" in the assigend model is not allowed (they are on the same level of detail!).

Implicite relationships are (explicitely) defined and implemented in the ARIS method.; they must not be compared with "normal" assignments or connection types.

Regards,

Jutta Michely

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Martin Schröder on January 27, 2011
Hi Adnan,

the behaviour of functions becoming process-oriented superior to the functions in an assigned EPC or VACD or Function Tree is rather convenient (and known for years) than strange to me.

Apart from Aris Help the docs that come with your installation and are available in Software AG Aris download area shed some light:

In %arishome71%Docs\Enu\method_tabulations_aris.pdf see chapters 3.2 Model types - Connection types/Assignment relationship types and 3.6 Number of possible assignments

The report script "output filter info" will give you in XLS a separate worksheet of allowed object to model assignments.

But you are right, there is no explicit description of which implicit connections will be created through assignments. Hopefully your quest for completing above list is an inspiration to refine the method help and docs.

Regards, Martin
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