Designing NAF Architectures
Creating a NAF Architecture
To create a NAF architecture:
1. From the NAF navigation tree, right-click the "Architectures" folder and select New > Architectural description.
2. In the dialog box that appears, enter the name of the new architecture.
3. Click OK.
The new architecture appears in the list of architectures.
When you create a NAF architecture, a set of related objects are also created. These objects are contained in a new HOPEX library. The architecture itself is also contained in this library which is used as a container for all the architecture items. All these new objects are defined to represent a given perspective of the architecture, for example the operational or the system perspective.You can also set an architecture as the default architecture. In so doing, all the objects created will be created within the context of this architecture and consequently are contained in the library of the architecture. See Setting Up a Default Architecture.
Setting Up a Default Architecture
When an architecture is created, several other objects are also created. To ensure that all these objects are taken into account in reports, they must all be enclosed within the architecture scope.
Items created within the framework of a hierarchy are automatically retrieved from the starting point of the hierarchy. For example, in an organizational chart, all org-units belonging to a hierarchy are retrieved from the top level org-unit.
However, many other objects are not created within the framework of hierarchies. For example, data flows between two operational nodes do not belong to any tree. In this case, the HOPEX Modeling tool ensures that these objects can be safely retrieved by placing them in a HOPEX library. HOPEX libraries define a partition of the HOPEX repository and can be seen as boundaries for given modeling projects. If a library has been set as the default library, all new objects are created within its boundary.
The HOPEX NAF functions similarly, however, for the NAF expert the main item is the architecture not the library. So, when creating a new architecture a new library is automatically created which will receive all new objects.
When you set a default architecture, the corresponding library is automatically set as the default library and so all new created objects are contained in the library of the NAF architecture.
To set an architecture as the default architecture:
1. In the NAF navigation tree, right-click the architecture you wish to set as the default architecture.
2. In the pop-up menu that appears, select Set as default.