Tool Mentor: Managing Dependencies Using Rational XDE Developer - .NET Edition and Rational RequisitePro

Purpose

This tool mentor provides tool-specific guidance for the following RUP activity:

• Manage Dependencies

The steps in this tool mentor match those in the activity. Links to topics in XDE online help are marked with .

Overview

This tool mentor assumes that the RequisitePro-XDE integration has been used to detail requirements as described in Tool Mentor: Detailing a Use Case Using Rational XDE.

The following are the steps for this tool mentor:

• Organize Requirements
• Assign Attributes
• Establish and Verify Traceability
• Manage Changing Requirements

Organize Requirements

RequisitePro is the primary tool for organizing requirements. XDE is the primary tool for organizing model elements. You should organize your requirements according to your Requirements Management Plan prior to creating associations between model elements and requirements.

For more information on organizing your requirements, see Tool Mentor: Managing Dependencies Using Rational RequisitePro.

Assign Attributes

For information on assigning attributes to requirements, see Tool Mentor: Managing Dependencies Using Rational RequisitePro.

Establish and Verify Traceability

To establish traceability between an XDE model element and a RequisitePro requirement, create a requirement from a model element, then use RequisitePro to establish and verify traceability between the requirement and other requirements.

The most useful model element types to associate with requirements include class, package, subsystem and actor. Because managing traceability links has a cost, we recommend you trace requirements to the highest level of abstraction in your design, to quickly detect what part of your design is affected by requirement change. Although the integration allows you to trace to detailed design element (such as attributes and operations), you should balance the value of detecting requirement change impact to design with the time spent managing traceability links.

To learn how to create traceability requirements, see "Creating traceability requirements from model elements" in the integration Help. This is accessed from the top menu bar by clicking Tools > Rational RequisitePro > Integration Help.

Note that you can assign attributes to a traceability requirement as you would any other RequisitePro requirement.

Manage Changing Requirements  

Requirement changes are managed in accordance with the Requirements Management Plan.  Some additional guidelines are as follows:

Re-assess Requirements Attributes and Traceability

Even if a requirement hasn't changed, the attributes and traceability associated with a requirement can change.  The system analyst is responsible for maintaining this information on an ongoing basis.

Manage Change Hierarchically

A change to one requirement may have a "ripple effect" that impacts other related requirements, design, or other artifacts.  To manage this effect, you should change the requirements from the top down.  Review the impact on the Vision, then more detailed requirements (use cases and supplementary requirements), and then the design, test, and end-user materials. To manage the impact of requirements change on these elements, consider using traceability reports.

Rational Unified Process