Artifact vs. Requirement vs. Document

I'd like to understand the meaning of
Artifact (i.e. UseCase), Requirement and the particular artifact type Document.


In my (RRC independent) point of view i.e. a Use Case is a requirement and can be documented in a document.

In RRC obviously 'Use Case", 'Requirement' and 'Document' are different artefact types (handled in the artefacts tab).

For what artefact type 'document' is used? Every type might be a document, or not?

How does that fit together? What is the intention behind?

Artifacts is a general term for the objects within a repository, and are the lowest level of objects that are displayed in the Project Explorer and project Artifacts page. You use projects and folders to manage artifacts.
Artifacts come in various types, including documents, business process diagrams, user interface sketches, user interface sketch parts, screen flows, storyboards, use-case diagrams, use cases, actors, requirements, and glossaries.

Note that requirements differ from other artifacts in that they appear in their own dedicated tab in the Projects page and can be used in RequisitePro Synchronization.

Use cases and Requirements can also have their own assigned attribute group


So a Use Case is a Document Artifact that is defined to use the Use Case requirement attribute group.

Robin, thanks a lot. It makes my view much more clear.

Your following sentence leaves a question open:

So a Use Case is a Document Artifact that is defined to use the Use Case requirement attribute group.

There are two different artefact types: "Use Case" and "Document".

Obviously a Use Case matches to the Use Case artefact type.
But for what is the Document artefact type good for?

Robin, thanks a lot. It makes my view much more clear.

Your following sentence leaves a question open:

So a Use Case is a Document Artifact that is defined to use the Use Case requirement attribute group.

There are two different artefact types: "Use Case" and "Document".

Obviously a Use Case matches to the Use Case artefact type.
But for what is the Document artefact type good for?


A Use Case is a special type of document artifact. That allows the Use Case to appear on a Use Case Diagram, as well as a defined Use Case attribute group. What this means is that if you double-click on a Use Case diagram, the Use Case (Oval) it will open the associated document.

A Document is a more general type of document artifact that does not have these additional capabilities.

Some additional thoughts on this topic ...

Teams create many "related artifacts" when initiating a project and going through the requirements elicitation and validation process. Many analysts start with notes from meetings, draft outlines of needs, etc. Some of these documents serve only to organize one's thinking -- they are not maintained & reused directly. Others grow over time and become more valuable. Often there are other documents containing important organizational, business, and market context that is relevant to the analyst and project team.

RRC artifacts and documents provide a way for teams to gather, organize and share this information.

This process of going from relatively unstructured, documented-oriented requirements to structured, database-oriented information is very common, and part of our vision for RRC is that it will help teams do this more effectively than with wikis, word docs, etc.

Daniel

Great forum!!! Thanks for the information!!!