Retiring elements

Deleting something from your baseline can be an important step.

If you have some information which is wrong, or not needed any more, you can just delete it from EA in the normal way:

1. Check if it is used in any diagrams
2. Check if it is used as classifier or type by other elements
3. Check if has connections to anything else.

Then just delete it from the model, or put it into a package (“trash”) where you can find it again if needed.

If the element you want to delete is being deleted in the real world, then deleting it from the model is only a small part of the story.

For example, if the element represents a business process which you won’t use any more, or a software system which is being decomissioned, then EA needs to support that removal. A simple delete-from-model won’t help you manage the orderly removal of that business idea.

Portolio Manager helps you to understand and manage this process by implementing a set of element states which prepare for the deletion of the element.

1. Branched-to-retire. When branched element is made ‘branchedToRetire’, this signal that someone is thinking about retiring this element.
2. Planned to retire. This signals that a project has a firm plan to delete this element. It has a date when the retirement will happen.
3. Finally, Retired is used as the status for elements which are no longer in use, but have be retained in the model in case they might be needed at some time the the future. Or you could just delete them from the model.