After completing this unit, you should be able to:
- Describe the purpose of traceability
- Explain the difference between a content link and a traceability link
- Link objects to create traceability
- View traceability relationships in columns, graphically, and in the artifact sidebar
- Delete links between objects to fix traceability
- Navigate around different levels of information by using traceability links
- Analyze the impact of a changed requirement or failed test by using traceability
Notes:
Requirements control the development of any project. This is why we need to understand their decomposition from high level user/customer/market needs to system, sub-system, software or hardware component requirements; and transformation into design specifications and the implementation realization of the requirement. We need to understand how requirements impact each other, and how requirements impact other artifacts in the development lifecycle (such as designs, tests, tasks, source code, hardware specs, etc.) and vice versa. Traceability in this context is about relationships between requirements at the same or different levels of detail, and between requirements and other lifecycle .
Notes:
You can define a range of linking relationships between artifacts. Link types are defined at the project level and are configured by the project administrator.
Notes: Linking enables traceability.
Traceability supports these activities:
Derivation, elaboration, and coverage analysis. You can create links between requirements to specify the source, derivation, or dependencies between the requirements. For example, detailed requirements can be traced to high-level, more general feature requirements or to stakeholder needs. Detailed requirements elaborate high-level requirements. Use traceability to verify that all requirements have the required elaboration to fully describe the objectives.
Impact analysis. Assess the impact of the change or proposed change by using traceability. When requirements change mid-project based on stakeholder input, teams use traceability to assess the impact and cost of change. The result of this analysis can be the basis for negotiating the change. Use this analysis to expose dependencies and hidden costs of change.
Progress analysis. Track the progress and completion status of linked requirements, development items, and test cases.
Lifecycle coverage analysis. Verify that all of the required development and test items are in place to implement and validate requirements.
Teams can avoid unwieldy documents and analysts can focus on owning and managing requirements artifacts, not big documents. When requirements, use cases, and business rules are locked in a document, they cannot be reused and duplication is difficult to detect. You specify each requirement, use case, business rule, and other types of artifacts, and then use reuse many times. You can review small pieces of the project and, depending on the conventions of your organization, you can get sign-offs online rather than in big documents. When required, such as for audit, compliance, commercial, or contractual reasons, you can generate a targeted document.
Notes:
The Requirements Management (RM) application for Jazz™ solutions supports highly flexible linking schemes.
Typically, a team or organization determines a small number of key relationships to focus on. For example, a team might focus on key relationships that are used in saved filters for analysis, when generating documents, or in the context of Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM), Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), and project development.
This diagram is an example of a set of trace relationships.
In the diagram, the link direction from stakeholder needs to features is downward, using the Satisfied by relationship. Not depicted here, but automatically created by IBM® Rational® DOORS Next Generation, is another relationship from features to stakeholders. This relationship can be, for example, the “satisfies” relationship.
Notes:
Directional labels on Trace links give links meaning. The “satisfaction” relationship has been set up by the administrator to have directional labels, “Satisfied by” and “Satisfies”. This makes analysis of the linking a lot more natural by the reader.
Notes:
Content links provide simple hyperlinks in an artifact without adding nonessential link information to the sidebar and project pages. You can create a content link from a text string in a text artifact to an artifact in the repository or to a URL. You can create multiple content links from a graphical element in a diagram, sketch, part, or storyboard to other artifacts or to URLs. Content links are not necessarily traceable, by default, to the artifact they are in. However, you can create a link from content in an artifact and designate a traceability type for that link. Then, the link is displayed in the content and a matching trace link is shown in the artifact sidebar, on the Artifacts page, or on the dashboard.
Notes:
The selected artifact has some traceability links and they are shown in the right sidebar.
Notes:
The selected artifact has some traceability links and they are shown in the rich hover.
Notes:
In addition to exploring the links of the artifact through the rich hover or the right sidebar, one can explore links graphically or in display columns
Notes:
On the Artifacts page, a module, or a collection, you can change the information about the artifacts that is shown in the columns. When you are displaying link information, you can also choose to display attributes of linked artifacts.
Click the Configure page settings icon.
Select Configure Columns to Display.
Select the link type from the Select attributes or link types section of the window
Click Add. The link is displayed in the Columns to display section.
Click OK to save changes and close the window
Notes:
When you display link information in a column, the ID and content of the link artifact are displayed by default. You can display additional attributes as follows:
From the content to show area of the window, select the link type you want to format for displaying additional information. This will enable the Format button.
Click Format.
In the Format Link Display Column window, select the attributes to display.
Notes:
You can identify scope creep or dropped requirements by using a view that displays link information in columns .
You can use such views at the project or module level.
Remember that tags, links, and comments in a module are scoped to the module. Therefore , you must create views at the module level in order to display such module specific information.
When you create a view, you can save it for all of the modules. By saving a view for all modules , you can provide a consistent look when you analyze relationships.
Notes:
The links explorer is supported at the project level, in collections, and in modules.
It is accessed by the artifacts edit options.
Notes:
For projects and collections:
From the tree view, you can see trace relationships organized hierarchically. The tree view shows relationship links indented below each artifact on the page.
Only base artifacts are considered.
Notes:
Watch this “Link as you think” video: http://youtu.be/8SwVon4Q1Q4
You can link two artifacts together, regardless of where they are located within the RM project, by dragging one artifact using the artifact handle, and dropping it over the other’s create link icon.
Remember that links created at the project level are base artifact links, which are relevant everywhere that the artifact is used.
If you must scope the artifact links, use a module. Links to and from an artifact that is in a module are scoped to that module. This method promotes reuse.
Notes:
You can drag and drop directly into the displayed column, and the application is aware of the relationship you are trying to create.
Notes:
When you display links in a column, you can edit a link by creating another link or removing links directly from the column.
Notes:
Every artifact type can have a list of preferred link types.
Preferred link types are useful for preserving the consistency of the links within the module.
If the selected artifact type has preferred link types, those types are displayed.
If you select a preferred link type, the Create Link window is populated with that link type.
If you click More, the Create Link window opens.
Notes:
From the Create Link window, you can specify this information about a link:
The type of link to create
The project to search in to find the artifact to link to
How to search for the artifact: by folder, tab, attribute, or module
If you link to an artifact (not a Row in a module), then you are making a link to a base artifact.
Notes:
You can extract new requirements artifacts from an artifact. You can link the current artifact to the new artifact, or you can embed the new artifact in the current artifact.
For example, you might want to extract and link requirements when you are transforming meeting notes into managed requirements.
If you right-click an artifact and select the menu item to create an artifact, the new artifact has the artifact type of the current artifact. In the example on this slide, the current artifact is a feature artifact. Therefore, if you right-click that artifact to create another artifact, the new artifact will be a feature artifact.
To create an artifact of a different type, extract the artifact by clicking the Save Selection as New Artifact and Link or Save Selection as New Artifact and Insert icons on the toolbar. When you click either of those icons, a window opens that prompts you to select information about the artifact, including its type and location.