Composite Activity Hierarchy

The Composite Activity Hierarchy pattern creates elements and diagrams that allow a click-through (drill-down) between any two layers of a hierarchy. An Activity that has a child diagram has a marker in the bottom right corner of the element; when this element is double-clicked the child diagram will be displayed.

Figure 1. Shows a hierarchy of Activities that describes the structural relationship between Activities on a Block Definition Diagram. The 1.1 Activity has an indicator showing it can be clicked through to another level.

Figure 2. Show the structure of the elements in the Project Browser indicating how Activities are nested below their owing Activity.
Discussion
Their purpose is to provide a mechanism to describe a complex and possibly deep hierarchy of Activities visually. The drill down mechanism allows a Systems Engineer to construct a diagram representing a single level and other diagrams to represent other levels with the ability to click through from any element to another level.

It is typically used when it is realized that a hierarchy of Activities is too large to be represented on a single diagram Many modelers consider it best practice to create single hierarchies of Activities in a given diagram. There are some situations however where a stakeholder may want to see all the Activities in a single view and this can be easily constructed using a hierarchical pattern.

The following is a list of some things you may want to do when working with this pattern.
·	Rename the Package and diagram to suit the initiative.
Adjust the structure by adding or removing Blocks.
Rename the Blocks to suite your own endeavor. 
Rename the Role names of the Associations.

The following is a list of some of the next steps available when applying the pattern.
·	Add another level to the hierarchy creating elements under one or more additional Blocks.
Make one or more of the elements composite and add child diagrams to allow click-through to lower level diagrams.
Define Trace relationships showing how the Requirements relate to up-process elements such as Strategies, Business Rules and other Requirements and down-process elements such as User Stories, Use Cases, Components, Artifacts and database tables.
Create high quality documentation generated automatically from the model using built-in or user-defined templates.

Useful Workspace Layouts Core | Core Modeling, Wide View
Reference
The following help topics will assist you learn about how to work with this pattern.
SysML Activity Toolbox
Association
Composition
Working with Diagrams
Changing Element Appearance
Changing Diagram Layout
Tree Style Hierarchy

The following are some of the tools that will be helpful when working with this pattern.
Specification View
The Specification View can be used as a way of working with the Components and Interfaces particularly when there are a large number of elements as is typically the case when describing a system of any appreciable size. For more details see the Specification View help topic
Diagram Layout
The Diagram Layout tool allows you to layout an entire diagram, selected elements or sections of a diagram to make it more visually appealing or meaningful to a particular audience. There are a wide range of layout types to choose from and some types have filters that can be applied. For more details see the Diagram Layout help topic.
Pan and Zoom
The Pan and Zoom facility is one of the tools that can be used to navigate around a large diagram. Often the resolution of a diagram must be reduced to ensure it is wholly visible but by using the Pan and Zoom window you can leave the diagram at a readable resolution and pan around to areas of interest zooming in when necessary. For more details see the Pan and Zoom help topic.
Diagram Legends
The Diagram Legend facility is useful for manually or automatically changing the appearance of elements and connectors on a diagram. A legend can be added from the Common Toolbox and configured to codify the fill and line color and line thickness. This is a powerful way to add meaning and expression to a diagram and is particularly expressive when applied automatically based on element or connector properties. It can be used with a number of specialized diagrams such as roadmaps to create a powerful visualization.  For more details see the Diagram Legends help topic.
Relationship Matrix
The Relationship Matrix provides a spreadsheet like view of two groups of elements and the relationships that exist between them. It can be a used as a powerful analysis mechanism to visually indicate how elements are related to each other and to discover which elements are missing relationships. For more details see the Relationship Matrix  help topic.
Traceability Window
The Traceability Window automatically displays the relationships that exist between Use Cases and other model elements including up-process and down-process elements. The traceability tree view can be conveniently expanded to see deeper relationships and elements displayed in the window can be located in all diagrams in which they appear. For more details see the Traceability Window  help topic.
Document Generator
The Document Generator is a powerful facility in Enterprise Architect that allows a Database Engineer or other stakeholder to create high quality corporate or technical documentation directly from the model, suitable for internal or external audiences. For more details see the Documentation help topic or the more general topic on Model Publishing.
Element Discussions
The Element Discussion facility is a fully featured collaboration tool allowing modelers and model viewers and reviewers to communicate with each other directly inside the repository. Modelers using the full client or occasional viewers using WebEA can both post and reply to discussions and communicate and engage in chat. For more details see the Element Discussions help topic.
Hand Drawn and Whiteboard Diagrams
The Hand Drawn and Whiteboard Mode are display options available for any diagram that changes a system-drawn diagram to appear as though it was drawn by hand and, optionally, hand drawn on a whiteboard. It is a powerful device to engage an audience by presenting the diagram in a rough and more immediate style giving the impression that it is just a sketch that can be changed. For more details see the Hand Drawn and Whiteboard Mode help topic.
Alternate and Images for Diagram Elements
Most standard elements allow an alternate image to be defined for an element that will be used in place of the graphical notation for the element either on a selected diagram or as a default on all diagrams. For more details see the Using the Image Manager help topic.

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