What is the best way to record thresholds and objectives in Doors Next Generation?
Hey all,
I've been the System Administrator for a small deployment of Requirements Composer (now Doors Next Generation) for about 2 years now, but I don't have any previous experience in using Doors. I work with requirements that have both Thresholds and Objectives (as well as several other potential pieces of information, such as clarification, source, rationale, etc.), but I have not figured out the best way to RECORD these pieces of information. Ultimately, I want to build both a requirements document AND a requirements trace-ability matrix (a table of the requirements). It seems that I have 3 options:
- Add the thresholds and objectives to the "primary text" of the requirement artifact. This allows them to show up correctly in the requirements document (in a module), but means I can't display them in a separate column for the requirements trace-ability matrix (which is either a collection or just a view).
- Add the thresholds and objectives as attributes of the requirement artifact. This allows them to display properly in the requirements trace-ability matrix, but then I can't display them in the text of a module.
- Make the thresholds and objectives completely separate artifacts, and link them to the requirement artifact. This allows them to show up correctly in the requirements document (the module), AND I can get them to show up as linked artifacts in the requirements trace-ability matrix, but the linking is REALLY tedious, and the formatting is off in the requirements trace-ability matrix.
Here's an example of the type of requirement I work with:
Requirement: The device shall detect common metals
Threshold: Iron, Magnesium
Objective: Iron, Magnesium, Aluminum, Copper
I guess what I'm asking is - what is the best practice for this type of thing? How are thresholds and objectives typically stored? How are requirements trace-ability matrices typically generated? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
-Jesse
2 answers
It sounds like you are really focusing on the format and display of the way the information looks on the screen (in the module). Once you move to traceability then the module is still a bit limited with how it displays. I would say that most people would put Threshold and Objective into an attribute field and display them in a column along side the module main column display. If the traceability display isn't sufficient now that you might want to take a look at the newest milestone build for the Jazz Reporting Service (coming in Dec) that is supporting requirements artifacts including their attributes.
I like the {braces} method of specifying objective (aka target) requirements. I think it originated in the DoD but it gives you requirements like this:
"The device shall detect Iron, Magnesium, {Aluminum, Copper}"In your traceability matrix you can then specify a compliance enumeration type that distinguishes between them, e.g:
Non-Compliant,
Compliant(Threshold)
Compliant(Objective)
etc.