Visible Analyst 2009 Released

New modeling tool capabilities support UML 2.1, Vista, and Windows 7

FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS - December 21, 2009 Visible Systems announces a new edition of its award winning modeling tool Visible Analyst. The new edition of Visible Analyst enhances support for UML 2.1 modeling standards for software and hardware engineering initiatives.

Enhancements include support for two key diagram types: Component diagrams and the Deployment diagrams. Component diagrams focus on the software components of a system and Deployment diagrams support the hardware components of a system
 
The main purpose of the Component diagram is to visually show the structural relationships between the components in a system.   A component is an autonomous, encapsulated element within a system that provides for one or more interfaces. Typically components are larger design elements that will be implemented using replaceable modules.
 
Deployment diagrams model the physical architecture of a system showing the relationships between the software and hardware components in a system, as well as the physical distribution of the processing. Deployment diagrams depict the static view of the run- time configuration of processing nodes and the components that run on those nodes. Deployment diagrams show the hardware for your system, the software installed on that hardware, and the middleware used to connect the disparate machines to one another. Deployment and component diagrams are interrelated in that deployment diagrams are used to deploy the components from component diagrams. Deployment diagrams control the performance, scalability, maintainability, and portability of a system during the implementation phase of development.

Professor Jesus Borrego of the School of Computer and Information Sciences at Regis University commented that "Current public companies are being faced with greater scrutiny with regards to governance and compliance. In order to meet stringent regulations such as SOX and ITIL, IT departments are required to provide current configuration diagrams. Visible Analyst supports these efforts by providing deployment diagrams with real-time configuration of equipment and software installed. The diagrams portray the hardware and software configurations of nodes, including connectivity to other machines on the network. These diagrams are very useful during internal and external audits for COBIT, ITIL, SOX, and ISO."

A variety of communities will benefit from the new enhancements to Visible Analyst, including: enterprise architects, developers, system administrators, implementation staffs, systems engineers, system production staffs. Enterprise architects will find that component diagrams offer a very intuitive visual tool to model their solutions. Developers will find component diagrams very useful giving them a high level view of the system they will build. System administrators will find component diagrams useful to see at the logical software components that will run their systems. The implementation staff will gain a basic understanding of the system being built. Systems engineers will use deployment diagrams to visualize the hardware topology of their systems. And, the system production staffs will heavily use deployment diagrams to model the physical run time of their systems.

"As an IT instructor and co-author of the Shelly- Cashman Series Systems Analysis and Design textbook, I'm very familiar with the Visible Analyst CASE tool. My students find that working with graphical models and diagrams helps them learn systems design skills.

As we evolve from structured analysis to adaptive methodologies, a CASE tool like VA can help keep us on course. Most IT professionals know that there is no silver bullet. Rather than teach or write about the latest and greatest development strategy, I believe that students need to focus on basics, use various tools to visualize and design a system, and carry those skills with them from the classroom to the workplace.

I usually assign a major project during the term, and I require students to use more than one development approach. VA is an excellent tool for traditional data and process modeling, as well as object-oriented use case diagrams, activity diagrams, and state-transition diagrams, among others" Harry Rosenblatt.

Visible Analyst continues to be the easiest to learn and use modeling tool for systems analysis and design, database design, and UML modeling tool for team-based software engineering. To learn more about Visible Analyst 2009, or to request an extended evaluation, please contact John Nash at JNash@visiblesystemscorp.com.

COBIT - Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) is a set of best practices.

ITIL - The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) manages IT operation and infrastructure.

SOX - The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) mandates and requirements for financial reporting.

ISO - International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

ABOUT VISIBLE SYSTEMS: Headquartered in Framingham, MA, Visible Systems offers end-to-end, model-based solutions for developing and managing large-scale software, hardware and database applications. Key products include: Visible Analyst, a powerful systems analysis and design and tool that supports UML, XML, and round-trip structured software engineering in one integrated multi-user tool set; Visible Developer, a model-based application design and code generation tool; and Razor an integrated software configuration management suite.

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©2009 Visible Systems Corporation. All rights reserved. Visible Developer, Visible Analyst and Razor are registered trademarks of Visible Systems Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.