Slides used for the EclipseCon EU 2016 talk: https://www.eclipsecon.org/europe2016/session/be-serious-sirius-your-journey-first-experimentation-large-deployment-sponsored-obeo Sirius is the Eclipse project that allows you to easily create custom graphical modeling tools dedicated to your own business domain. In this talk we will explain and illustrate how to successfully deploy industrial-strengh modeling workbenches based on Sirius. In particular, we will show how to collaborate with other team members by storing your models and representations (diagrams, tables, matrices, trees) in a shared repository. This solution based on CDO provides a fine-grained locking mechanism that allows you simultaneously work on visual representations for the same data, without losing time managing conflicts and without any technical skills. During this talk, you will also discover the solutions provided by the creators of Sirius to help you stay on the right tracks, from first hands-on to large deployments.

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Be Serious With Sirius: Your Journey From First
Experimentation to Large Deployment
Etienne Juliot
@ejuliot

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Sirius : A Well Proven Technology
Deployed on numerous projects
●
Thales: Systems Engineering of the group (Capella workbench)
●
French Ministry of Defense: Spec, Design and Dev of Enteprise Applications

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The Sirius Process
Domain
Model
Graphical
Modelers
Integration
Iterate

4. Domain model : Describe your business
Goulwen Le Fur:
« The more domain model is well-designed,
the more it will be easy to create tools,
the more it will evolve easily in time »

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Domain model: Involve the domain experts
Modeling
Champion
Domain
Stakeholder
EMF Expert

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Domain model : Be specific (W/WO standards)

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Domain model: Evolution-Friendly Designed
Early domain model stabilization
- add: OK
- remove, update: migration

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Domain model: Use Ecore Tools

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Domain model: Follow Ecore Best Practises
Follow the little pony checklist
NsURI convention
Reference and attribute names are consistent
All the non-abstract EClasses are supposed to be instanciated
A user can’t introduce cyclic references in between model fragments
A user can’t introduce cyclic references in between model fragments
http://cedric.brun.io/eclipse/ecore-design-checklist-part1/
http://cedric.brun.io/eclipse/ecore-design-checklist-part2

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The Sirius Process
Domain
Model
Graphical
Modelers
Integration
Iterate

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Graphical Modelers: Use expressive shapes

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Graphical Modelers: Give meaning to colors

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Graphical Modelers: Use SVG & images
Use your Visual Identity

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Graphical Modelers: make it nice
Follow Loredana's advises

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Graphical Modelers: make it nice
Follow Loredana's advises
after
before

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Graphical Modelers: make it nice
Follow Loredana's advises
after
before

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Graphical Modelers: create an instinctive usage
(without training)

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Graphical Modelers: add custom properties
view

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Graphical Modelers: guide the user

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Graphical Modelers: guide the user
conditional styles

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Graphical Modelers: guide the user
smart filters

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Graphical Modelers: guide the user
semantic positionning

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Graphical Modelers: guide the user
activity explorer

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Graphical Modelers: guide the user
Viewpoints
Layers
Validation
Tabbar
Layout
….
Reduce the number of clics

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Graphical Modelers: work by uses cases
Modeling Champion
Domain
Stakeholder
Sirius Core Dev
Sirius Expert

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Graphical Modelers: follow Obeo's best
practices
Optimized model queries
Avoid eAllContents()
Use semanticCandidate instead of precondition
...
Prefer AQL langage
Validate your VSM
Use naming convention
Reuse representation's definition with imports
Take care of the views’ size
Think about (un)synchronized nodes

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The Sirius Process
Domain
Model
Graphical
Modelers
Integration
Iterate

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Integration: typical tasks
Build
Tycho / Maven / Jenkins
Plugin architecture and reuse strategy
Branding
RCP / UI simplification
Import / Export
Document Generation with M2Doc
Source Code Generation with Acceleo (or XTend)
Xtext Bridge
Collaboration solution

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The Sirius Process
Domain
Model
Graphical
Modelers
Integration
Iterate

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Iterate: follow Obeo's best practises
A POC generally address
A subset of the target domain
a reduced set of representations
A POC is representation centric
don't care about reliability of domain model
Can be trashed Should be trashed→
Here the goal is to validate the general principle of the tooling, not start
the development

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Iterate – POC: Design for your users with your
users
Tools are easy to configure
Design your ecore model in session validate with domain experts→
Prototype your sirius representations in session Test with targetted users→
Add in the loop internal or external IT integrator
Ideal team :
1 Sirius expert 1 targetted user1 domain expert

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Ready-to-use packages
Community Edition Team Edition
A 100% Open Source package to
discover Sirius thanks to a robust
foundation
A commercial package completing
OD Community with repository-based
collaborative features.

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Iterate – POC : project organization
Typical goals for Sirius expert:
To animate a working session
To implement a domain model or review an existing one
To quickly prototype Sirius representations from PPT / Visio specifications
To demonstrate the ability to import / export data with external tools
Average time for POC : 5/20 wd

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Iterate: follow Obeo's best practises
A Pilot generally address
A subset of the target domain, reliable enough for a real usage
a reduced set of representations, usable by real end users
A Pilot is domain model + UX centric
the domain model should reliable and long term
It should demonstrate a value on some use cases with good feedbacks
The goal is to validate the ROI

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Iterate – Pilot: scope
Outcomes
Domain model
Specification and Implementation of a subpart of the EMF domain model
Representations
Completion and Stabilization of the representations started during the POC
or Creation from scratch to be based on good specifications
Enough representation to be able to edit any elements
Basic Tools such as : direct edit, reconnexion, creation, built-in tools usage
Integration
Import / Export, (doc+code) Generators
Challenge
Identify risks and try to solve them
No test on large volumetry

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Iterate – Pilot: project organization
Several ways of automonous
Full outsourcing to Sirius experts
Full internal dev with progressive ramp-up
4 days training
2 weeks at full time for initial setup and workshops
2,5 days of week during 1 month
Sprint for specific features
Support
Mix
1 outsourced Sirius expert 2 internal developper↔
Full time project or sprints
Average time for Pilot: 15/40 wd

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Hot-fixes & Open Innovation
Cost management
of your specific integrations
Dedicated Support
Guaranteed response time
for your support queries
Secure
Your Deployments
Drive the
Roadmap
Iterate – Pilot: Editor's Support

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Iterate: follow Obeo's best practises
Industrialization generally address
Scalability
Multiply representations at different abstractions or context
Adding all tools for convenience
Industrialization is reliability centric
Unit Testing on every services
RCP testing for UI
Automatic build, code review

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Collaborative Modeling with Sirius:
from Model Fragments to Shared-Repository

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Collaboration with model fragments
SCM
Merge data
Work locally Work locally
Merge data
A SCM to manage files
User 1 User 2

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Collaboration with model fragments
User 1
User organiser
Fragment file
User 2
How to avoid merging ?

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EMF Compare : semantic merge

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EMF Compare: graphical merge

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Model fragment: so what ?
Assume that processes are well defined and followed for
File fragmentation
File sharing
File locking at corse grain
Assume Technical support for merge processes suited for
Meta model that can be easily fragmented
Low user number
Technical users

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You already know how to collaborate fluently

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Instant collaboration
User 2
Obeo Designer Team Server
User 1 User 2
shared repository and collaborative work features

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Users' Feedback
Several users working simultaneously on the same data
• Automatic propagation of modifications across all user views
• Authentication and data access rights
• Suited for 10-15 users users working simultaneously on the same data
No time lost managing conflicts and splitting models
• Implicit locking during modifications
• Explicitly created reservation locks
Centralized administration
• Administration console with automation feature
• Branch, archive and backup management
Standard data exploitation
• Storage in a multi-platform relational database (H2)
• Ready to deploy server configuration based on CDO
• Import/Export with local projects

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Usage across several teams
OD Team is deployed at Sagem, MMA, CS, Postal Bank,
Thales, French Ministry of Defense, Airbus, ...
Paris Stuttgart
SCM

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To Sum Up
Focus on the domain model and Stabilize it ASAP
Initialize and design your representations in workshops
Start with a POC
Industrialize with a collaborative editing strategy

50. 15/11/2016
Paris XV - Novotel Vaugirard
Talks ClinicTutorials
Call For Papers
Now Open!