From Enterprise Design with EDGY

Enterprise Elements

Relationships

The EDGY language defines three types of relationships each of which can connect source and target elements to express their interplay. This limited number reflects a deliberately simplified model compared to other visual languages used in engineering practice.

Using just three relationships, various Enterprise Elements can be collected and connected in Enterprise Design Boards:

  • A link relationship describes an association between two elements.
  • A flow relationship describes a behaviour or dynamic sequence between two elements, and the passing of structures between them.
  • A tree relationship describes a containment or aggregation between a parent and a child element of the same type.

All relationships are unidirectional, they describe a source and a target endpoint. They can be displayed visually as a line or arrow, but also expressed implicitly through proximity, indentation or alignment on a grid.