Deriving relationships in Archi with 3.1?

[Alberto]

Now that Archimate 3.1 has updated the derivation rules for relationships, I'm curious whats people take on them.  They seem that it is now possible to compute valid and potential derived relationships. Is anyone working on implementing a derivation mechanism within Archi? or perhaps a jArchi script?

[Phil Beauvoir]

When you say "a derivation mechanism within Archi" how do you see this manifesting?

[Alberto]

Wasn't there a derivation "mechanism" (for lack of better word) prior to Archi4 ?topic=270 and before Archimate 3.0? I personally never got to see it as I discovered Archi starting on v4.2, but I imagine given a model, and  selecting two elements, right click an be given an option to create a derived relationship.  Similar action could also be in the magic connector.

To me, the logic would be to navigate the relationships, find the shortest path between two elements, and derive each step based on the Archimate 3.1 derivation rules.  I know I'm putting it in very simplistic terms, I'm just wondering that with Archimate 3.1 and its new derivation rules, if its feasible to bring back the derivation engine, or if its still just not possible.   

[Phil Beauvoir]

Archi used to have a "Show Structural Chains" feature and a "Create Derived Relation" feature whereby Structural relationships could be highlighted in red in Views to show the chain from one element to another. And a derived relation could be created by following a chain of relationships, finding the "weakest" one and proposing that. It got complex because of the many routes that could be traced, and was dropped when Archi 4 was released.

I'm still not clear what the usefulness of all this is.

[Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie]

Hi,

I'm still not clear what the usefulness of all this is.

Same for me. That's the key point to solve before thinking about an implementation: what are the use-cases behind this ?

Regards,

JB