Entity Lifecycle Management
Manage the full lifecycle of architectural entities with active, planned, and deprecated states, succession tracking via replaced-by and evolved-from edges, and automated impact analysis.
Architectures are not static. Services are replaced, data models evolve, and components that were once central become obsolete. Managing this evolution is one of the hardest aspects of architecture documentation. Without explicit lifecycle tracking, deprecated entities linger in diagrams, schemas reference components that no longer exist, and teams waste time integrating with services that are scheduled for removal. First-class lifecycle management is built in for every entity in the model, with succession tracking, impact analysis, and automated migration tooling.
Lifecycle States
| State | Meaning | Visual Indicator |
|---|---|---|
| Active | Currently in use and maintained | Default styling |
| Planned | Approved for future implementation | Dashed border or planned badge |
| Deprecated | Marked for removal | Strikethrough or dimmed styling |
Succession Tracking
When an entity transitions from active to deprecated, it rarely disappears in isolation. Typically, a replacement entity has been introduced, or the deprecated entity has evolved into something new. NeoArc tracks these relationships explicitly through dedicated edge types.
Repoint Wizard
When deprecating an entity that is referenced by schemas, diagrams, or other model elements, the repoint wizard migrates all references in three steps.
Governance Reports
Lifecycle management integrates with the governance reporting system to provide ongoing visibility into the health of your architecture.
Create named version snapshots, manage entity lifecycles with active, planned, and deprecated states, and track architectural evolution across diagrams, graph diagrams, and documentation pages.
The central model file is the single source of truth for every entity, relationship, and property in a NeoArc project. Abstract database-agnostic types, key roles, per-property projections for persistence, search, and API, governance classifications (PII, confidential, retention policies), shared property sets with live inheritance, comprehensive validation rules, and import/export across a wide range of formats.