Cool open source tool for ER diagrams

Recently one of my colleagues introduced me to a cool Java tool called SchemaSpy.
SchemaSpy is a java tool that can be used to create beautiful database documentation and also ER diagrams.

Would highly recommend perusing the following links and utilizing this tool:

• GUI for SchemaSpy:  http://schemaspygui.sourceforge.net/
• Documentation:  http://schemaspy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
• Source Code: https://github.com/schemaspy/schemaspy

Ruminating on RACI matrix

The RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) is an excellent tool for mapping between processes/functions and roles.
It brings in immediate clarity on Who’s Responsible for something, Who's Accountable for the final result, Who needs to be Consulted and Who all are kept Informed.

There are several templates available on the net that can be used for the RACI matrix. One good template is available here. Once data is collated on such a matrix, then we can analyse questions such as -

a) Are there too many A's? Usually its best to have only 1 person/role accountable for a process/function.
b) Are there too many I's? Too much information that is not needed? etc.

We can use RACI matrices anywhere. You could "RACI" any deliverable in your project. Also in EA governance, we can use RACI to clearly separate the responsibilities across the centralized EA team and project architects.Given below is an example of EA Governance RACI Matrix.

Custom PMD rules using XPath

Writing custom rules in PMD using XPath is an exciting concept, but unfortunately there are not many good tutorials or reference guides available on the internet for this.

Recently, we wanted to write custom PMD rules to extract Spring JDBC calls from the code base. We utilized the PMD desiger that is provided OOTB in Eclipse to easily write the rules.

Just open Eclipse -> Preferences -> PMD -> Rule Designer.
In Rule Designer, copy-paste your source code and check the AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) that is formed. You can also copy the AST XML from the menu bar and paste it on to a text editor. Writing the XPath expression then becomes very very simple !!!

For e.g. for finding our the Spring JDBC query calls the XPath was:
//PrimaryPrefix[Name[starts-with(@Image,'jdbcTemplate.query')]]