HOW TO Create An IT Landscape Diagram

Tutorial IT Landscape

You will create this IT landscape by using one web application on the Dragon1 platform: The Visual Designer.

Go to the demo IT Landscape.

This visualization shows an IT landscape. An overview like this is necessary for any organization.

You will take the following steps:

• Create a dossier structure
• Enter Data
• Create process and application models using the data
• Create links between the process and application models
• Create process and application views using the models
• Create links between views
• Create a visualization using the views
• Publish the visualization to the Viewer to have it commented on by stakeholders

Step 1. - Create a Dossier Structure

First, we will create a dossier structure to store our data in a cabinet.

To create a dossier structure

• Go to the Visual Designer
• Create or open a Cabinet
• Select the cabinet in the Explorer treeview
• Create a dossier
• Create four folders in the dossier: Data, Model, View, and Visualization

Step 2. - Enter Data

On Dragon1, you can enter data by dragging shapes to a folder.

To enter data

• Go to the Visual Designer
• Create or open a Cabinet
• Select a folder
• Insert shapes from the Draw Archifact or Draw Entity dropdown menu
  • For the process-application landscape, choose the shapes for three layers:
  • Business Layer: Group, Function, Process, Activity
  • Information Layer: Information Object
  • Application Layer: Application, Database, Interface, Service
• Select a shape in the treeview
• Select the shapes' icon on the canvas
• Change the name of the shape at the right top in the text attributes of the Inspector

Step 3. - Create a Model, using the data

To create a model

• Go to the Visual Designer
• Create or open a Cabinet
• Select a folder
• Insert models from the menu bar
  • Create models for the process-application landscape for every entity class you have used
  • Process model, Service model, Application model, etc...
• Enter a name for the model
• Optionally choose a type for the model
• Insert shapes like processes and applications for the model by clicking on Draw Archifact or Draw entity and drag the shape onto the canvas
• You can change the color and size of the shapes
• Draw connections between the shapes using the smart tools of a selected shape.

Step 4. - Create links between models

To create a link between models:

• Select a model in the Explorer treeview
• Select a shape in the model
• Enter a link to another model in the LinkURL field of the text attributes

Step 5. - Create a View using the model

To create a view

• Go to the Visual Designer
• Create or open a Cabinet
• Select a folder
• Insert views from the menubar
  • Create views for the process-application landscape for each model you created:
  • Functions view, Process view, Activities view, etc...
• Enter a name
• Select the model to use
• Enter a viewing rule for the model data:
  • Rule Event: onload
  • Rule Condition: Class=Process;Name=Sales;Relation=FirstLevel
  • Rule Action: Show(name)

Step 6. - Create links between views

To create a link between views:

• Select a view in the Explorer treeview
• Select a shape in the view
• Enter a link to another view in the LinkURL field of the text attributes

Step 7. - Create a Visualization, using the views

To create a visualization

• Go to the Visual Designer
• Create or open a Cabinet
• Select a folder
• Insert a visualization from the menubar
• Drag a shape on the canvas. You will use this shape to generate the view data on the canvas.
  • For the process-application landscape, use three shapes:
  • One for Functions, Processes and Activities.
• Save the visualization
• Select one of the three view shapes
• Enter the following view rules in the data attributes panel of the inspector.
  • Rule Event: onload
  • Rule Condition: Class=Process
  • Rule Action: Show(name)

Do this for all three view shapes

With this rule, you will only see the processes from the view data. You can also show the whole view with Rule Condition = *.

Step 8. - Publish the visualization

To publish a visualization:

• Select a visualization in a folder
• Click on the Share button in the menubar
• Enter the correct data in the dialog
• Click on the share button in the dialog
• Now go to the Viewer and search for your visualization by its title
• Add a comment to the visualization
• Filter the visualization on certain values

It is also interesting to read the page of IT Architecture in the resources section.