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Sparx EA - An Unpolished Gem
January 29, 2018

Sparx EA - An Unpolished Gem

Allan Kowalski | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Sparx EA is being used as a centralized single source of truth of architectural specifications, representations and related information and meta-information.

The user interface provides a set of customized views of the information, appropriate to the individual user's role and expertise.

As gatekeeper, I ensure proper governance, auditing and guide its evolution and use.
  • Open Architecture - A wide and extensive set of options, plug-ins and customization options make Sparx EA more of a tool kit than just a tool. Most tools allow customization but Sparx EA is built from the ground up with this in mind.
  • Wide variety of formats, lexicons, standards and data import export capabilities allow different roles to interact with the information in different ways.
  • Automated report generation allows architects and designers to spend less taking on word processing and more time on performing architecture and design.
  • It is not necessarily a user friendly tool, but then again neither are any of the others EA tools. They provide excellent tutorials and webinars. They should keep adding those.
  • The RTF document templates can be challenging to create.
  • Setting the sort ordering of searches in model views is complex(require a custom SQL query)
  • The time saved on not using MS Word alone is huge. BY generating reports, spreadsheets, user friendly output and so on it has saved hours per week per user.
  • By allowing so many different roles to use a single source of truth, information is much easier to access and maintain. Several hours a week not spent looking for information . or the latest information is the result.
  • BY allowing customization, days of detailed training of staff in UML, Archimate, etc.. are avoided.
Price: Sparx blows away the competition being less expensive by orders of magnitude Features: It compares favorably with the competition w.r.t. modeling architecture. It's not an APM, risk management or any other kind of tool. Support: It provides excellent e-mail technical support but not any kind of consulting or professional services. Of course, there are a plethora of companies that will happily step in to fill this slot but be prepared to pay. My advice - hire a very skilled independent consultant.
You need to have a Sparx EA go to person to help socialize the tool and ensure it is properly used (but again, this is true for most tools). IF a company is looking for a tool they can just buy an have people use they should stick to Visio because any true modeling tool requires expertise.

In an environment where you do not have a highly trained group of architects who are familiar with all the standards and strategies of modeling, Sparx EA , more than most tools, allows you to wrap user friendly menus,and windows around it to make it easier to use.