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Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect pros and cons

3.9 out of 5
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Automated document generation in Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect saves significant time by eliminating manual updating and pasting efforts.
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect offers robust support for various modeling languages, enhancing its utility for database design and software lifecycle visualization.
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect provides a comprehensive repository that simplifies maintaining architecture information and traceability with requirements.
The tool is highly customizable, allowing users to adapt it seamlessly to their corporate environments without extensive retraining.
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect supports effective business process modeling and scenario simulations, improving workflow descriptions and operational planning.

CONS

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect has a steep learning curve, making it difficult for new users to understand its capabilities and functionality.
There are insufficient customization options and inadequate visual representation for modeling sets.
The software features are not intuitive and challenging for non-technical users, complicating collaboration efforts.
The documentation templates require improvements to support complex documentation needs such as RFP templates.
Report generation is not interactive or straightforward, requiring more effort from users to effectively utilize this feature.
 

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect Pros review quotes

JS
Feb 5, 2021
For the most part, we find that it is remarkable how inexpensive it is.
IM
Aug 4, 2021
Its traversability is most valuable. I can use ArchiMate, and I can create a UML model. ArchiMate is for logical enterprise architecture, UML is for software engineering, and BPMN is for business processes. I can build it to have multiple models, and they are also traversable, which is not something that every tool allows. If there is a huge organization, you can segment it and have separate models for business technology or internal resource management system. You don't need to keep them in one model, and you can decide to segregate them.
Anthony Houghton - PeerSpot reviewer
May 15, 2022
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect was easy to set up and it took just twenty minutes.
Learn what your peers think about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,660 professionals have used our research since 2012.
TW
Jul 24, 2020
It has led some teams to do better code reviews - to be less focussed on coding conventions (syntax) and more focussed on the semantics because of the abstraction level clear design affords.
ML
Aug 25, 2020
The product offers very good support for all mainstream modeling notations and architectural frameworks.
PO
Feb 20, 2024
The stability has been good and satisfactory. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.
RK
Sep 14, 2021
The best thing about the tool is that its database is open.
reviewer1355997 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 16, 2020
The initial setup is easy.
KD
Feb 11, 2021
It is a very flexible product. It can do a lot. It is also a reliable product.
it_user526653 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 30, 2017
Automated document generation is a real time saver, no more cut and paste, no more keeping track of which diagrams are in which reports, no more last minute update panics. Just click a mouse and you've got an up to date report.
 

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect Cons review quotes

JS
Feb 5, 2021
The presentation graphics need to be improved in future builds.
IM
Aug 4, 2021
From a practical point of view, we need speed and reliability for creating a model and doing some really meaningful tasks such as application landscape, refactoring, etc. These are two primary criteria. Sometimes, when you import something, it creates the object duplicates, or it allows you to do something that you're not supposed to do. For example, validation is missing. This could be frustrating because when you work at a high speed, you need to come back and start fixing things that the tool allowed you to go with, which is not quite good. So, there should probably be some internal mechanisms to advise you about what you're doing and what is probably not the best idea.
Anthony Houghton - PeerSpot reviewer
May 15, 2022
One room for improvement in Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is that it's not very friendly. Another room for improvement in the tool is that it doesn't enable you to import the metadata from a database very easily, so reverse engineering of a database was very difficult. Its database modeling and entity-relationship modeling functions need improvement.
Learn what your peers think about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,660 professionals have used our research since 2012.
TW
Jul 24, 2020
Because its easy to create diagrams one needs to be vigilant on the housekeeping of orphaned fragments - I have written my own scripts to do this, maybe they are available now.
ML
Aug 25, 2020
Even if there are web-based tools in the Enterprise Architecture tool ecosystem (like Prolaborate), the main modeling application is still a fat client application.
PO
Feb 20, 2024
In general, we now have a problem with Sparx Enterprise Architect because many analysts think it's too complicated to use in a giant environment.
RK
Sep 14, 2021
The automatic creation of reports based on the model elements could be improved.
reviewer1355997 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 16, 2020
The documentation needs a bit of improvement. What I find is that when I'm trying to do something specific for some part of a project, in terms of documentation, it's kind of hard to get at figuring out if you don't use it all the time.
KD
Feb 11, 2021
I would like it to be less of a general tool. Currently, it is not a Swiss army knife that can do everything. It is not specialized for our purposes. We are a civil engineering company. We build things. We work mostly in what is known as Infra world in the Netherlands, which comprises objects such as bridges, locks, and water management. We would like to see more focus on such types of projects. It would be nice if it has more specializations. At the moment, it is very generic, and you have to create everything yourself. Our focus is more on user requirement management, which is currently very basic. I would like to see a lot more functionality in this area. Its basic functions for adding user requirements are perfect, but we need more features. Currently, it has limited possibilities for our requirements. I would also like to see better contract management and have it managed in a certain way.
it_user526653 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 30, 2017
Its best features are not intuitive or easy to learn. Most companies I have worked with, when I see what they are doing with it , are not using more than 5% of what they could and should be doing with it.