Tool Mentor: Managing Dependencies Using Rational RequisitePro
Purpose
This tool mentor describes how to use Rational RequisitePro® to manage
dependencies by using requirement
attributes and traceability.
This section provides links to additional information related to this tool mentor.
Overview
RequisitePro enables you to create and maintain a clear organization of requirements.
You can group your requirements according to user-defined attributes, such as
function, priority, risk, and cost. In addition, you can establish hierarchical
relationships that represent requirements in logical parent-child groups.
Finally, you can create a traceability relationship between two requirements
that establishes dependency from one requirement to the other.
Tool Steps
The following requirements management concepts and procedures are presented
in more detail.
- Organize requirements
- Create requirement hierarchies
- Create requirement traceability
- Query requirements
Functional organization can be expressed in requirement types. A requirement
type is simply a class of requirements that enable teams to organize large
numbers of requirements into meaningful and more manageable groups. Establishing
different types of requirements in a project helps team members classify
requirements and communicate more clearly.
One type of requirement usually can be decomposed into other types. For
example, business rules and vision statements typically include high-level
requirements from which teams derive user needs, features, and product
requirement types. Use cases drive design requirements that can be used to
define software requirements. Test requirements are derived from the software
requirements and are divided into specific test procedures. (If your
installation includes Rational TestManager®, we recommend that you use that tool for
managing test artifacts.)
When there are hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of requirements
in a given project, classifying requirements into types makes the project more
manageable. Using RequisitePro, you can create requirements of a given type in a
requirements document or directly in the project database. Each requirement type
has specific attributes that are unique to that type.
To create requirement
types:
- Click File > Open Project, select the project, and
select the Exclusive check box. (The project
must be opened in exclusive mode to create new requirement types.) Click OK.
- In the Explorer, select the project, and click File > Properties.
The Project Properties dialog box appears.
- Click the Requirement Types tab, and click Add.
Type the requirement type information (name, description, tag prefix, color,
and style of the requirement format).
- Click OK.
To create requirements
in a document:
- In the document, select the text to define the requirement.
- Do one of the following:
- Right-click and select New Requirement.
- Click RequisitePro > Requirement
> New.
The Requirement Properties dialog box appears.
- Click the tabs and type the appropriate information to define the
requirement. Click OK.
To create requirements in an Attribute Matrix:
- In the Explorer, select the package in which you want to place the view.
Then click File > New > View. The View Properties dialog box
appears.
- Type a name for and description of the view. The view type is Attribute
Matrix. Select the requirement type for the Attribute Matrix from the
list. Click OK. The Attribute Matrix appears.
- Either click twice the field marked <Click here to create a
requirement>, or click the field and then click Requirement
> New. The Name and Text boxes appear.
- Type a name for and the text of the new requirement.
- Press the Tab key to move across the matrix. Add
attribute values as needed.
- Click anywhere in the view to save the requirement.
You can also open an existing requirement in an Attribute Matrix by selecting
the requirement and clicking Requirement > Properties.
The Requirement Properties dialog box appears. On the General
tab, you can modify the text for the requirement. Click the Attributes
tab and select the appropriate values for the attributes.
For More Information
Refer to the
following topics in the RequisitePro online Help:
- Creating and modifying requirement types (Index: requirement
types > creating)
- Creating requirements in a document (Index: requirements
> creating)
- Creating requirements in an Attribute Matrix (Index: requirements
> creating)
You can manage dependencies in hierarchical relationships.
Hierarchical requirement relationships are parent-child relationships that
reflect a logical grouping between requirements. These associations provide
helpful tools for organizing requirements.
Use hierarchical relationships to subdivide a general requirement into more
explicit requirements. Parent requirements are upper level, more general
requirements; child requirements are lower level, more specific requirements.
Each child requirement can have only one parent, but a requirement can be both a
parent and a child.
Note: Hierarchical requirement relationships should not be
confused with traceability relationships. A traceability relationship is
generally established between different types of requirements, like software and
test requirements, whereas hierarchical relationships group requirements of the
same type, at the same level of the requirement traceability tree.
To create child requirements in a document:
- In the requirements document, select the information that defines the
requirement.
- Do one of the following:
- Right-click and select New Requirement.
- Click RequisitePro > Requirement > New.
The Requirement Properties dialog box appears.
- Click the tabs and enter the appropriate information to define the
requirement.
- On the Hierarchy tab, select a parent from the Parent
list. If the parent is not displayed in the list, select <choose
parent...>, and select a parent from the list displayed in the Parent Requirement Browser dialog box.
- Click OK to close each dialog box.
To create child requirements in a view:
- Open an Attribute Matrix based on the requirement type of the requirement
you want to create. Select the requirement that you want to be the parent of
the new requirement.
- Click Requirement > New Child. You
can create a child requirement in a view only if the selected requirement
(which will become the child's parent) is also located in a view (that is,
it is not located in a document).
- Type a description for the child requirement.
- Press the Tab key to move across the matrix. Add
attribute values as needed.
- Click anywhere in the view to save the
requirement.
For More Information
Refer to the following topics in the RequisitePro online
Help:
- Hierarchical relationships overview (Index:
hierarchical requirements>overview)
- Creating child requirements in a document (Index:hierarchical
requirements>creating child requirements)
- Creating child requirements in a view (Index: hierarchical
requirements>creating child requirements)
- Assigning parent requirements in a view (Index: parent requirements>assigning new parent requirements)
You can use traceability to manage dependencies. As implied in the description
of requirement types, no single expression of a requirement stands alone. The process of
decomposing user needs into derived requirements implies relationships between
high-level expectations and subsequent artifacts needed for implementation and
validation. In effect, one traces to many or vice versa.
For example, stakeholder requests are related to the product features
proposed to meet them. Product features are traced to individual
requirements for specific functional behavior. Test cases are traced from
the requirements they verify and validate.
To determine the impact of changes and feel confident that the system
conforms to expectations, team members must understand, document, and maintain
these traceability relationships. Traceability is an essential tool for
accommodating change and ensuring complete coverage. Establishing clear
requirement types can help make traceability easier to implement and maintain.
To create requirement traceability:
- In the Explorer, select the package in which you want to place the view
you create, and then click File > New > View. The
View Properties dialog box appears.
- Select the Traceability Matrix view type. Select one requirement type for
the rows and one for the columns of the matrix. Click OK.
- In the Traceability Matrix, select a cell that intersects the two
requirements for which you want to create a traceability relationship. (Use
a multiple select action to select multiple cells.)
- Do one of the following:
- Click Traceability > Trace To or Traceability > Trace
From.
- Right-click the cell and select Trace To or Trace
From.
For More Information
Refer to the following topics in the RequisitePro online
Help:
- Trace to/trace from overview (Index: trace to/trace from
relationship>overview)
- Creating traceability relationships in a view (Index:
traceability >creating )
Suspect
Relationships. A relationship between requirements becomes questionable
or suspect if RequisitePro detects that one of the requirements in the
relationship has been modified. If a requirement's text is modified, all direct
relationships to and from that requirement become suspect. Moreover, you
can define attributes that, when modified, cause traceability relationships to
become suspect.
Query to retrieve and organize requirements by
attribute values or traceability. The RequisitePro query features
provide a method for filtering and sorting requirements in views by limiting the
values of one or more attributes or by limiting traceability and specifying the
order in which the filtered requirements are displayed. Filtering restricts the
information being displayed; sorting determines the order in which information
is displayed. For example, in an Attribute Matrix, you may want to use filter
criteria to view only those requirements assigned to you; you can also use
sorting criteria to arrange the requirements from highest to lowest priority.
You filter and sort requirements by applying query criteria to the
requirements and their attributes. These criteria limit the values of the
attributes or conditions of the traceability relationships. You can create a
query based on a single attribute value, or you can select multiple attribute
values to create more complex query criteria.
RequisitePro allows you to save and rerun queries with user-defined views.
You can dynamically rerun queries to update a requirements collection or refresh
the returned data with updated values at any time.
To create a query:
- Open an Attribute Matrix, Traceability Matrix, or
Traceability Tree view.
- Click View > Query Row Requirements. If
you have not yet added any query criteria, the Select Attribute dialog box
appears.
- Select the attribute and attribute value that you want to use in your
query, and click OK.
- For list-type attributes, select one or more values. The logical operator
OR is assumed for list-type attributes. For entry-type attributes, select an
operator and specify the values.
- To create compound queries (with multiple attributes), click Add
and select additional query criteria.
- Click OK.
To save a view:
- Click File > Save View As. The View
Properties dialog box appears.
- Type a name for the view.
- Select the Private check box to save the view so that it can be opened
only by the user who created it.
- Click OK.
For More Information
Refer to the following topics in the RequisitePro online
Help:
- Creating a view (Index: Views > creating views)
- Creating and modifying queries (Index: queries > creating)
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