Basic concepts and terminology for the Requirements Management application

Essentials of IBM Rational DOORS Next Generation V4.01
Basic Concepts and terminology 1© Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
Basic concepts and terminology for the Requirements
Management application
Contents
Module overview -2
Requirements Management Project -3
Key RM application concepts -4
Artifact formats and editors -5
Anatomy of an artifact -6
Every artifact is of a particular artifact type -7
Before you begin -9
Managing requirements projects -10
Review -11
Module summary -12

2 © Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
Module overview
After you complete this module, you should be able to
do these tasks :
 Explain the difference between Jazz™ Team Server and the
Requirements Management (RM) application
 Describe the basic concepts and terminology in the RM
application
 Identify tasks that the team must do before starting a
requirements management project with IBM® Rational®
DOORS Next Generation or IBM® Rational® Requirements
Composer

Jazz Team Server
Requirements Management (RM) project
RM project
QM project
RM project
DM project
Jazz
Team
Server
friend
Tool
with OSLC
support
Tool
with OSLC
support
CM project
Project
Administration at
the Jazz level
Administration at
the project level
The RM project is part of Jazz Team
Server. Therefore, some
administration tasks, such as creating
users and creating projects, are
handled at the Jazz Team Server
level. Other tasks occur at the level of
the RM project.
The current focus of this course is the
RM project.

Key RM application concepts
Artifacts
Folder structure
RM project
Attributes Created on, Modified by, Priority,
Clarity, Status, Verification method, …
Links
Tags
Comments
A project area refers to project artifacts
and stores the relationships between
these artifacts.
Artifact is a general term for something
that is part of a project, such as a specific
requirement, or a diagram, or other
information.
In a project, folders are used to organize
artifacts.
Each artifact has a set of attributes,
which you can use to record and track
data about an artifact. Artifacts are
customizable. Artifact values can be
tracked by the system or entered by you.
You can use attributes to organize
artifacts and manage projects.
By using links, you can create
relationships between requirements
artifacts. Links are mechanisms for
referring to related information. You
create some links manually; however,
other links are created automatically
when you complete certain tasks. Links
are useful for managing projects.
You can categorize artifacts by using tags
. Then, you can use tags to filter and
create different views of artifacts.
A comment is a textual discussion item
that is associated with an artifact or an
element in an artifact. Comments are
useful for providing team feedback
during the development of an artifact.
You can comment on an artifact as a
whole and on specific elements in the
artifact.

Artifact formats and editors
Artifacts can be of a variety of formats. A
format specifies what type of information the
artifact will carry and the editor what will be
used to capture that information.
•Text – for individual textual requirements,
headings, information, embedding images
or pdf or other artifacts, or even complete
Rich text requirements specification
•Module – for creating hierarchically
organized requirements specifications that
looks like rich text documents and act as
spreadsheets when necessary. All content
within the module are individually
managed within the module.
• Business process diagram – for
describing business objectives, activities
and processes
•Use-case diagram – to describe user
interaction with the system
•User interface Sketch – for creating a a
mock-up of a graphical user interface that
supports the design of an application.
•Screen Flow – to represent a sequence of
user-driven software processes as a series
of graphical user interfaces
•User interface Part – as reusable set of
user interface elements that you can use to
populate sketches and storyboards.
•Storyboard - frame-by-frame depiction of
a user scenario that consists of sequentially
numbered frames on a timeline.
•Collection – for grouping artifacts for a
specific purpose

Anatomy of an artifact
The location shows
where the artifact is
stored.
The format
specifies the
structure of
the artifact
content.
The artifact
type classifies
the artifact and
provides a
consistent set
of attributes
and preferred
link types for
each specific
type.
Some attributes are
generated automatically.
Others can be edited.
Links represent
relationships
between
artifacts.
Unique ID
Tags
Artifact content Title or summary
Artifacts can be in one or
more modules.

Every artifact has a type
Artifact type
(User defined)
Default
Format
Glossary? Attributes Preferred link
types
Requirements
specification
Module • Approved by
• Approver position
Information Text
Actor Text True • Status
Use Case
Diagram
Use-Case
Diagram
• Status
Business Goal Text • Priority
• Status
System
Requirement
Text • Accepted
• Clarity
• Mitigates
• Satisfies
• Satisfied by
Vision Text • Status
• Product Owner
Use Case
Specification
Text • Status
• Product Owner
The above tables lists a few artifact types,
attributes and link types that are defined in
the examples we are using in this course. Out
of the box, such artifact types, attributes, and
link types would not exist.
Artifact types are defined by the
administrator of the RM project and are
based on defined and supported editors,
attributes, and preferred link types.
Attributes can also be defined by the
administrator , based on the predefined and
user-defined types. They can be single or
multi valued. They can be based on a drop-
down list, or be limited between a range.
There are some predefined links types but
more can be defined by the administrator.
It is important for the team to understand the
artifact types as they capture requirements
information. Assigning the correct link type
to the requirement information will bring
with it a default editor, attributes, preferred
link types, and the possibility of the artifact
being used in a glossary.
For example, the vision document,
stakeholder requirements document, and
system specification can all be of the
Requirements Specification type, and
therefore have the same attributes.
However, even though artifacts of type
Business Goal, Vision, information, and
stakeholder requirement have text as their
default format, the different artifact types
allow for type specific attributes and
preferred link types.

Artifact format - Module
Requirements
Information
Graphics
Diagrams
Module
In a module, artifacts are
logically and hierarchically
organized.
Base Artifact: An artifact
outside a module.
Artifacts are the project level are
organized in folders. The artifact at the
project level are referred to as a Base
Artifact.
Module is a special type of artifact
format, that contains other artifacts in a
logical and hierarchical manner. A
module looks like a rich text document
and like a spreadsheet revealing attributes
and their value directly in columns. In the
image, we see two columns; the main
content of the module, and the attribute
ID.
The artifacts inside a module, are
individually managed. Individually
managed artifacts means that contained
artifacts can be edited, links can be
created directly to the individual
requirement, history is tracked for
changes to the individual requirement,
and more.
A Base Artifact may be used in one or
more module. A module provides scope
to the artifacts it contains. So if an
artifact in a module acquires links, tags,
or comments, those will be relevant to the
artifact inside the module, and they do
not effect the base artifact. If the base
artifact gets links, comments or tags,
those links will appear everywhere the
artifact is used.
Organizing requirements information

Before you begin
The team must make a few decisions:
 What kind of information will be collected?
– Determine artifact types, attribute types, attributes…
 How will this information be related?
– Determine link types
The administrator must complete these tasks:
 (Jazz administrator) Create users
 (Jazz administrator) Assign licenses
 Assign access*1
 Assign users to projects
 Create link types, artifact types,
and attributes
Artifact types classify requirements
information. You capture
requirements information in artifacts.
When you create an artifact, you
make it of a particular artifact type.
This in turn automatically assigns it a
default editor, a defined set of
attributes and preferred link types.
Available Artifact types, their default
format, attributes, and preferred links,
are defined during the project
configuration. Project administrators
can create custom artifact types,
attributes, data types, and link types.
*1
Within a project area, a user who is
designated as Administrator has read-
write access for that project area, and
does not require any Jazz
administration privileges. For more
information refer to the information
center, topic: “Understanding
licenses, permissions, and access
control”

Managing requirements projects
You can answer critical questions about your project by
using requirements artifact attributes, tags, and trace
relationships (links).
 Have all stakeholder needs been sufficiently elaborated?
 Which features are assigned to this iteration?
 Which features are high customer priorities?
 Which requirements will be affected by a change?
 Which use cases or user stories are completed?
 Are any high-priority requirements blocked by open defects?
 Are any requirements not covered by development work
items or test cases?
 What is the current status of this project?
To manage a project, you must be able to
answer questions such as these during the
project lifecycle.

Review
 What kind of information is
stored in a requirements
management project?
 What are artifact attributes
used for?
 What are links?
 What is a base artifact?
 What is a module?
 What are some activities that
a team has to consider prior to
working with the requirements
management application?

Module summary
In this module, you learned basic terminology and
concepts that are used in the Requirements
Management application.

Basic concepts and terminology for the Requirements Management application

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