It’s time for user-submitted CA ERwin Data Modeler enhancements to be provided to the Modeling Global User Community for consideration and voting.  A recent e-mail from Dan Dechichio outlines the timeline and some of the key points about the process (emphasis mine):

ENHANCEMENT PROCESS

The process this year will be as follows:

We are starting from a clean slate, previously identified enhancements will not be carried forward.

• Enhancement requests must be submitted between the dates September 1, 2009 -  October 15, 2009
• Once received, the Modeling Global User Community Board will format the requests, without making any changes, and categorizes them as needed October 15, 2009 – November 1, 2009
• Voting process for all Global User Community Members takes place during November 15, 2009 – December 31, 2009
• Votes will be tabulated and the top items identified January 1, 2010 – February 28, 2010 
• The results will be published to the members: March 1, 2010
• The results will be presented to ERwin Development and Product Management at the CARE Conference (that is held in conjunction with CA World:) May 2010

Thank you for your participation in this process.  This is one of several ways that you, as a user of the ERwin product, have a voice in the direction of the product’s development.

Please send your list of enhancements your local ERwin user group or via the Modeling Global User Community website at http://causergroups.com/

So that means you have one week to submit Note that if you have previous submitted enhancement requests (such as via a ticket or via last year’s process) YOU MUST SUBMIT IT AGAIN.

From my post about this to our ERwin user group forum:

I'd like to make some recommendations for those of you who have enhancement requests. These are based on my experience with providing requests to all vendors, not just CA.

• Ensure that you have properly described what it is you'd like to see as well as a good business justification as to why you need it (save costs, get work done faster, decrease risk, increase production, etc.)
• Request that changes be CONFIGURABLE, not just imposed upon all users of the tool, if practical.
• Try to describe the solution in a way that shows how the entire community can benefit from this enhancement.
• Don't just describe the solution; describe the problem you'd like to resolve. This goes a long way to getting votes from the community later on.
• Use the right terms for the right things (you'd think we'd know this). Don't say "report" when you mean "window". Don't call it "table" when you mean "entity".

You might even want to consider posting some of your favourite requests to our discussion groups so that others can see them, too.

WHATEVER YOU DO, SUBMIT YOUR ENHANCEMENT REQUEST. Don't assume that they will automatically include your request because you submitted it every year for the last 5 years. They are saying right up front that no request is being carried forward. Don't assume that someone else will submit the same request, with the same suggested solution for you. Don't assume that others will vote on your request later if you have done a poor job describing the request. Don't make vague requests (make "ERwin work better", "Make it draw better") as might draw votes away from very specific solutions ("optimize drawing engine so that lines don't go behind other objects", "add support for multi-touch" - I so want this one).

Note that in order to vote, you are going to have to join the Global User Community. So you might as well do that now. The GUC is not this mailing list/board. It isn't your local user group. It's not the LinkedIn group or the Facebook group.

It's here: www.causergroups.com . So get joining, get drafting your submissions.

I'm sure others here have recommendations on how to submit and I'd love if you'd throw in your thoughts, too.