SAP PowerDesigner (PowerDesigner) is a collaborative enterprise modelling tool produced by Sybase, currently owned by SAP. PowerDesigner runs under Microsoft Windows as a native application, and runs under Eclipse through a plugin. PowerDesigner supports model-driven architecture software design. PowerDesigner stores models using a variety of file extensions, such as .bpm, .cdm and .pdm. The internal file structure can be either XML or a compressed binary file format. PowerDesigner can also store models in a database repository.
PowerDesigner data modeling tool market share in 2002 was 39%. PowerDesigner is priced from $3,000 to $7,500 USD per developer seat.
PowerDesigner includes support for:
Business Process Modeling (ProcessAnalyst) supporting BPMN
Code generation (Java, C#, VB .NET, Hibernate, EJB3, NHibernate, JSF, WinForm (.NET and .NET CF), PowerBuilder, ...)
Data modeling (works with most major RDBMS systems)
Data Warehouse Modeling (WarehouseArchitect)
Eclipse plugin
Object modeling (UML 2.0 diagrams)
Report generation
Supports Simul8 to add simulation functions to the BPM module to enhance business processes design.
Repository It refers to a repository of models (enterprise, information, data).
Requirements analysis
XML Modeling supporting XML Schema and DTD standards
Visual Studio 2005 / 2008 addin
PowerDesigner started life as AMC*Designor in France and S-Designor internationally, which was written by Xiao-Yun Wang of SDP Technologies. The "or" in the product name refers to "Oracle", since initially the product was developed to design Oracle databases, but very quickly evolved to support all major RDBMS in the market. SDP Technologies was a French company that was started in 1983. Powersoft purchased SDP in 1995, and Sybase had purchased Powersoft earlier in 1994. Shortly after the acquisition, the product was renamed to be consistent with the Powersoft brand. Sybase currently owns all rights to PowerDesigner and PowerAMC (the French version of PowerDesigner). In May 2010, SAP announced that it would be acquiring Sybase for $5.8 billion.
The data modeling features of the French and English editions were originally following 2 different methodologies: Merise for PowerAMC and IE/Information engineering (based on Yourdon / DeMarco works) for PowerDesigner. Since version 7, both editions support all methodologies and only differ from their user language. From v16.6 onwards, both Edition are called PowerDesigner and are delivered in a single installer.
1989 - The first commercial release of AMC*Designor (version 2.0) in France
1992 - The first commercial release of S-Designor in the US.
1994 - ProcessAnalyst was added to the suite in 1994.
1995 - S-Designor becomes PowerDesigner, AMC*Designor becomes PowerAMC
1997 - PowerDesigner 6.0 releases.
1998 - WarehouseArchitect was added.
1999 - PowerDesigner 7.0 was rewritten to take advantage of newer technologies and to provide an interface more consistent with other Sybase products.
December 2001 - PowerDesigner 9.5 was initially released, with maintenance releases through 2003.
December 2004 - Version 10.0 (Minerva release)
2005 - Version 11.0
January 2006 - PowerDesigner 12.0 released with metadata mappings and reporting features
August 2006 - PowerDesigner 12.1 released with enhanced support for Microsoft Visual Studio and SQL Server
July 2007 - PowerDesigner 12.5 released with new ETL (Extract, transform, load) and EII (Enterprise Information Integration) modeling and full UML 2.0 diagrams support
October 2008 - PowerDesigner 15.0 released with new Enterprise Architecture Model, customizable frameworks support (Zachman Framework, FEAF, ...), Impact and Lineage Analysis Diagram, logical data model, Barker's Notation, Project support and lot more
November 2011 - PowerDesigner 16.0 released with new Shell, Role based UI, Glossary, Impact analysis on repository, Sybase IQ reference architecture wizard, New database support,� Web portal enhancements
January 2013 - PowerDesigner 16.5 released with new features supporting SAP Platform: SAP HANA, SAP BusinessObjects, SAP Netweaver and SAP Solution Manager
March 2016 - Powerdesigner 16.6 released with Support for SAP HANA Calculation Views and SAP HANA Core Data Services (CDS). PowerDesigner Web can now edit Enterprise Architecture and Requirements Models.
Standards
PowerDesigner supports the following standards:
BPEL4WS
Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
Document Type Definition (DTD)
ebXML
IDEF
IE/Information engineering
Merise
RDBMS
Rich Text Format (RTF)
UML 2.0 diagrams
XML
XML Schema
