Exploring Enterprise Modeling and Visualization in the EA Workspace
Summarize
Summary of Exploring Enterprise Modeling and Visualization in the EA Workspace
Enterprise Modeling and Visualization in the EA Workspace provides powerful diagramming and modeling capabilities that enable ServiceNow customers to visually represent the future state of their IT environments and their relationships with business landscapes. These visual models help decision makers understand complex enterprise structures, improve communication across technical and non-technical stakeholders, and align IT initiatives with business goals.
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The functionality supports creating detailed diagrams for application hierarchies and associating them with architectural artifacts, thus facilitating informed decision-making, change management, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency.
Key Features
- Diagram Creation: Users can build diagrams using a wide range of shape libraries including General, AWS, CSDM, EA Extended, ArchiMate®, and BPMN shapes, either by selecting or dragging shapes onto the canvas.
- Connector Lines and Labels: Connectors between shapes can be customized with relationship types (especially for ArchiMate), line styles, arrowheads, icons, and multiple text labels to clearly define relationships.
- Versioning and Collaboration: Diagrams can be saved as new versions, shared with peers, committed to repositories, duplicated, and reviewed with version-specific details such as descriptions and rollout dates.
- Shape and Diagram Management: Tools for aligning and distributing shapes, updating shape details with data fetched from the ServiceNow database, and adding related records enhance diagram accuracy and usability.
- Keyboard Navigation: Extensive keyboard shortcuts allow efficient navigation across the diagram canvas, shapes, panels, and context menus, improving accessibility and productivity.
- Industry-Standard Support: The platform supports ArchiMate shapes for enterprise architecture, AWS shapes for cloud architecture aligned with CMDB and CSDM, and CSDM shapes representing standardized service-related objects within the Now Platform.
- Custom Shapes: Users can create tailored graphical elements to represent organization-specific concepts, making diagrams more relevant and understandable.
- Business Process Modeling: BPMN diagrams enable visualization of structured business processes, supporting accurate process documentation and analysis.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
- Enhanced Decision Making: Visual models help assess impacts, evaluate scenarios, and identify risks before deploying changes or new projects.
- Improved Collaboration: Shared visual languages bridge gaps between technical teams and business stakeholders, fostering alignment and communication.
- Strategic Alignment: Diagramming IT and business relationships ensures IT investments support overall business objectives.
- Efficient Change Management: Modeling future states and transformations helps minimize disruption during enterprise changes.
- Governance and Compliance: Structured documentation of architectural artifacts supports adherence to guidelines and regulatory requirements.
- Operational Efficiency: Visualization aids in identifying redundancies and streamlining processes to reduce costs and improve performance.
Getting Started
Customers can install the Enterprise Modeling and Visualization application from the ServiceNow Store to access these capabilities. The interface supports zooming up to 400% without losing content or functionality, and automatically adjusts page layouts for optimal viewing.
Comprehensive tools for creating, managing, and sharing diagrams are provided, with detailed options for shape libraries, connector customization, version control, and integration with ServiceNow data.
Enterprise Modeling and Visualization in EA Workspace helps you with diagramming and modeling capabilities and enable you to model the future state of your IT and its relationship to the business landscape.
You can use the Enterprise Modeling and Visualization [com.snc.apm_modelling_tool] functionality in EA Workspace to create diagrams for your applications hierarchy and associate them with architectural artifacts. These diagrams enable decision makers to make informed decisions.
- Visual representation: Diagrams and models represent complex enterprise structures, processes, and relationships for stakeholders including executives and IT teams.
- Effective communication: Diagrams provide a shared visual language for technical and non-technical stakeholders, supporting collaboration across teams and departments.
- Improved decision making: Decision makers can assess the impact of proposed changes, evaluate scenarios, and identify potential risks before implementing strategies or projects.
- Alignment with business goals: Diagrams and models help align IT initiatives with overall business goals, providing a view of the business and verifying that IT investments are strategically aligned with business goals.
- Change management: Modeling capabilities illustrate how changes affect the enterprise, supporting planning and execution of transformations with minimal disruption.
- Regulatory and governance: Modeling provides a structured framework for managing architectural artifacts and documenting adherence to architectural guidelines.
- Efficiency and cost reduction: Identifying redundancies, optimizing processes, and streamlining operations can help reduce costs and improve operational efficiency.
Install the Enterprise Modeling and Visualization application
You can install the Enterprise Modeling and Visualization [com.snc.apm_modelling_tool] from the ServiceNow Store.
Working with diagrams
- Shapes: Use different shapes to create a diagram. Available shapes are:
- General shapes
- AWS shapes
- CSDM shapes
- EA Extended shapes
- ArchiMate® shapes (ArchiMate is a registered trademark of The Open Group)
- BPMN shapes
Use the Toggle Shape Library icon to show or hide the shapes panel on the canvas.
Use the Switch to List or Grid view icon to switch between list view and grid view of the shapes for all the shape libraries.
You can add a shape to the canvas by either selecting the shape or by dragging the shape from the Shapes palette to the canvas.
You can also adjust the size of shapes by selecting a shape and then drag any of its edges or corner handles. Dragging outward increases the shape dimensions; dragging inward reduces its size.
When you hover over a shape icon in the Shapes panel, a preview popover appears to the right of the panel showing a larger view of the shape and its label. Moving to a different shape icon, using either the mouse or the arrow keys, updates the popover to the new shape. The popover closes when you move the mouse away from the icon, press Tab on the keyboard, start dragging a shape, or scroll the panel.
- Label connector lines: Select a connector line between shapes in a diagram and select T+ in the connector toolbar to add a label. For more information, see Add labels to connector lines between shapes in a diagram.You can perform the following actions for the labels:
- Add multiple labels on a single relationship line
- Drag and move labels
- Delete individual labels without deleting the relationship
- Use undo or redo action for a label
Note:In read-only mode or after the diagram is submitted for approval, label actions are unavailable. - Connector line properties: Select a connector between two shapes to display a toolbar above the connector. The toolbar has two forms depending on the notation of the connected shapes:
- If both connected shapes are ArchiMate shapes, the toolbar shows the following controls:
- Relationship type: Sets the ArchiMate relationship type from a predefined list, including Access, Aggregation, Assignment, Association, Composition, Flow, Influence, Realization, Serving, Specialization, Triggering, and Used by.
- Swap direction: Reverses the connector orientation, switching the left and right sides.
- T+: Adds a text label to the connector.
- If at least one connected shape is a non-ArchiMate shape (for example, a CSDM or AWS shape), or when connecting shapes from two different notations, the toolbar shows the following controls:
- Line style: Sets the connector line to solid, dashed, or dotted.
- Start arrow: Sets the arrowhead style at the starting end of the connector.
- Swap direction: Reverses the connector orientation, switching the left and right sides.
- End arrow: Sets the arrowhead style at the ending end of the connector.
- Icon: Adds a BPMN message flow decorator icon to the connector.
- T+: Adds a text label to the connector.
For more information, see Shape connector properties in Enterprise Modeling and Visualization and Set shape connector properties in Enterprise Modeling and Visualization.
- If both connected shapes are ArchiMate shapes, the toolbar shows the following controls:
- Version: This field enables you to view and open a different version of the diagram.
- View details: Use this option to view version-specific details of your diagram such as version label, description, and planned rollout date.
- Undo and Redo: Use this option to revert or reinstate recent changes made to a diagram. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts to perform the undo and
redo action.
- Align and distribute shapes: Select two or more shapes on the canvas to align them to a common edge or center. Select three or more shapes to also distribute them at equal
spacing. For more information, see Align and distribute shapes in a modeling diagram.
- Share: Use this option to share the diagram with your peers.
- Commit changes: Use this option to synchronize the diagram to the repository. This option is available only when the diagram is approved.
- Save as new version: Use this option to create a version of the diagram within the same artifact.
- Duplicate: Use this option to duplicate an existing diagram and save it as a new artifact.
- Open side panel: Select a shape in the diagram to see this option. Use this option to open the selected object details in a side panel. If the shape is connected to an existing ServiceNow element, the
details are fetched from the database and shown in the side panel. Update the details as required. You can select the Full details link to open the full form.
- Add related records- Select a shape in the diagram to see this option. Use this option to fetch and add the objects and their relationships with reference to the selected object.
- More actions- Select the three dots menu to see the following options:
- Delete shape from canvas to remove the selected shape from the canvas.
- Add relation to add relationships with reference to the selected object.
Keyboard navigation on the diagram page
Enterprise Modeling and Visualization supports keyboard navigation across the diagram canvas, panels, shapes, and dialogs.
You can use the keyboard to move between shapes, groups, pools, swimlanes, and nested elements on the canvas. Focus indicators clearly show the currently selected item. You can access shape and relationship context menu using the keyboard to open the side panel, view related records, add or edit relationship text, and perform actions such as delete or add relations.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Tab or Shift + Tab | Move focus forward or backward between canvas elements, panels, and controls. |
| Arrow keys (↑ ↓ ← →) | Navigate between shapes, nested elements, libraries, lists, pools, and swimlanes. |
| Enter | Select the focused shape, relationship, or control. |
| Shift + Enter | Move focus to shape or relationship adornments. |