Frequently Asked Questions

Although Time Architect can import MS Excel files including those created from MS Project - it can only import MS Excel files in '97 - 2003 format.

For some reason (?) MS Project creates its MS Excel files in '95 format... 

Please open the file in MS Excel and resave it in '97-2003 format and then TA will be able to read it.

There are two ways to ask TA to read only the elements you are interested in.

Method 1:

• Open the Settings dialog (from "Add-In" - "Time Architect" menu or from TA's toolbar).
• Go to "Element Filter" tab.
• Untick any EA elements you are not interested in reading.
• And/Or untick any EA element stereotype you are not interested in reading.
• Refresh/redraw TA Gantt Chart.

Method 2:

• Create a new EA diagram.
• Launch TA, switch to the Grid mode.
• Select the elements you are interested in.
• Click on the "Move Selected Element(s)" button located on the grid toolbar.
• Select the target package and then select the target diagram (the new diagram you have just created).
• Tick the "Copy to Diagram(s) Only" checkbox.
• Click "OK".
• Right click on the diagram you have created and click "Add-In" - "Time Architect" - "Draw Gantt Chart"
• Make sure the "From Diagram" checkbox is ticked and redraw Gantt Chart.

Using grid's column filter functions and TA's new report engine available from version 2.0, it is very easy to generate a PDF report of only the elements you are interested in:

• Switch into the grid mode in TA.
• Filter the grid using column filters provide on the header of each column.
• Click on the "Generate Report" button on the toolbar.
• Use the new report engine to generate a PDF report based only on the filtered data (this is automatic).

The simple answer to this question, is "Yes".

The full answer is "yes, but currently not through the TA interface."

At the moment, TA can only display 1 resource tied to an EA element - it will always use the first resource if multiple resources are allocated.  If you want to add additional resources to the element then you need to use the EA Project Management/Resources tab.

We will be making changes to this functionality in TA 3.0.

Sometimes, when you install TA the COM+ parts do not appear to register correctly.

This can be checked in EA by going to Add-Ins > Manage Add-Ins and checking the status for TimeArchitect.

If EA displays 'Missing' then please try the following steps:

• Exit from EA
• Copy the Interop.EA.dll file from the EA folder into the TimeArchitect folder
• Start a command prompt (Windows Key + ‘R’)
• Type cmd <return>
• Type cd c:\
• Type cd windows
• Type cd Microsoft.net
• Type cd Framework
• Type cd v2.0.50727
• Type regasm “c:\program files\sparx systems\ea\timearchitect\timearchitect.dll” /tlb: TimeArchitect.tlb /codebase
• Restart EA. 

The installer will be updated shortly to try and force the registration of TA.

We have received reports from another couple of people that they have had an issue in installing TA.  We are currently working on an updated installation routine to hopefully resolve the issue.

In the meantime - PLEASE CONTACT US AND LET US KNOW - we can then get the best understanding of the issues that people are facing.

If possible please can you provide us with the following information:

• Version of EA that you have installed
• Version of TA that your are installing
• OS that you are running EA/TA on
• Are you installing as an Adminisitrator?
• If you go to Start > All Programs > Time Architect > Manage Time Architect License and click on the Phone/Email icon (padlock) what is the state of the License?

As soon as there is an update to this, we will update this FAQ.

Many thanks.

To date, we have only had one reported issue with TA installing on a Vista machine.

In the TA profile, we have defined a number of quick link rules that can be used to quickly connect task elements together and you will be presented with a list of options:

• Start => Finish
• Finish => Start
• Finish <= Start
• Start <= Finish

but which one is the correct one to use?

When we wrote the quick link rules, we were trying to make it easy to link tasks together - but it appears as though we might have made it too complicated!  The 'symbol' in the middle => or <= is supposed to represent the direction of the arrow (=> as meaning from first element to second element and <= as to first element from second element) but it doesn't really work!

IF USING QUICK LINK, we recommend the following:

draw from the child element to the parent element and select the first link type in the list.  This will create the "Finish_Start" dependency that is used in the vast majority of cases.  Should you want a "Start_Finish" relationship then choose the second option.

We will remove the other 2 links in the next update of the TA profile.

The TA profile adds 2 extra elements into EA's element pallette:

• TA Task
• TA Risk

When should we use these elements instead of UML elements?

TA has been designed to be flexible - and can be made to work how you want to work...  So if you want to allocate timings to 'normal' UML elements then TA can do this.  TA can work with all UML elements, so if you want to add timing information to your classes, activities, use cases, changes, issues etc then you can.

However, sometimes you may not want to add timings directly.  Sometimes you may want to allocate timings to a number of elements at the same time or even split a UML element into a number of discrete parts but still only represent it as one element on your class diagram (for example).

This is where we see the TA Task as being most useful.  You can use it in an abstract way when you need to record things that have to be done but maybe you don't know how yet.  Also, because you can link TA Task elements to any other UML element then you can create a number of TA Task elements and link them all to the same UML element if you so wish.

The TA Risk element is slightly different.  This was added because we definately needed a way to represent risks in an EA project that could apply to more than one UML element at a time.  We also needed a way to record risks that applied to the project generally and not just to a UML element...

TA can be set up to read all dependency links in a model or only those with a particular stereotype.  This means that you could create all of your links in the model as dependencies (with no stereotype) and TA would be able to read them (if you use the default setting).  However, some UML purists would probably disagree with the use of the dependency link how it is being by TA.  So to conform to the rules it is probably best to use the TA stereotypes as this will add symantic meaning to the reason for the dependencies.

The TA Task element (created using the TA Profile) is actually a stereotyped requirement element.

If you wish to add TA Tasks then please add a Requirement element with a Task stereotype.

If you wish to add TA Risks then please add a Requirement element with a Risk stereotype.