Requirement operations in desktop client

Use these operations to edit the details, attributes, or relationships of a requirement in Dimensions CM, notify users about changes to associated requirements, or launch Requirements Management using Dimensions RM.

Select requirements

Note: When displaying requirements in the desktop client, descriptions that were entered in HTML in Dimensions RM are not displayed correctly.

To select requirements:

  1. In the My Current Project or My Current Stream window, expand the Catalog node and select the Requirements node.

    To view the requirements in a container of requirements, expand the Requirements node and click the appropriate node, for example, a collection or a baseline.

  2. In the content window, select one or more requirements.

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Edit requirement details

To edit a requirement, you need the Perform Requirement Related Operation (PRODUCT_REQUIREMENTMAN) privilege.

To edit the details of a requirement:

  1. In the My Current Project or My Current Stream window, expand the Catalog node and select the Requirements node.

  2. Select a requirement.

  3. Right-click the requirement name and select Open, or double-click the requirement name. The Dimensions RM Browser Edit Attributes dialog box opens (through the Dimensions RM integration).

    For details on how to edit the attributes, see the associated online help or the Dimensions RM help.

  4. Exit to return to the Dimensions CM desktop client.

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Relate a requirement to a request

You can relate a Dimensions RM requirement to a Dimensions CM request.

To relate a requirement to an existing request:

  1. In the My Current Project or My Current Stream window, expand the Catalog node and select the Requirements node.

  2. Select a requirement.

  3. Right-click the requirement and select Relate/Unrelate. The Manage Relationships dialog box opens.

    For details on how to specify a request, see Relate and unrelate objects.

Note: When creating a baseline, you can scope it by Requirement rather than Request. See Create a baseline with requests and requirements.

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Create a request to relate to a requirement

You can create a Dimensions CM request related to a Dimensions RM requirement.

To create a request to relate to a selected requirement:

  1. In the My Current Project or My Current Stream window, expand the Catalog node and select the Requirements node.

  2. Select a requirement.

  3. Right-click the requirement and select New Request. The New request dialog box opens.

  4. Enter the request details in the relevant fields in the General, Relationship, Attributes, and Attachments tabs. The Related requirements field on the Relationships tab is prepopulated with the selected requirement.

    For details on how to specify a request, see Relate and unrelate objects.

Note: When creating a baseline, you can scope it by Requirement rather than Request. See Create a baseline with requests and requirements.

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Create a baseline with requests and requirements

If your items are used in builds, after requirements have been linked to requests and the work for those requests has been completed, you need to create a baseline for all the items before they are used in the build.

You create a baseline using the requirements that were worked on for this build and project milestone. The baseline ensures that the specific versions of requirements, requests, and items are associated.

When you create this baseline in Dimensions CM, a baseline with the same name is created in Dimensions RM, containing the requirements linked or associated to the requests. The baseline in Dimensions RM is associated with the Dimensions CM baseline that was created.

To create a baseline that contains requests and requirements:

  1. Before attempting to create the baseline in Dimensions CM, first create the Request Baseline Template in the Dimensions CM Administration Console.

  2. In the My Current Project or My Current Stream window, expand the Catalog node and select the Requirements node.

  3. Select a requirement.

  4. Right-click the requirement and select New Baseline. The New Baseline dialog box opens.

  5. Enter the baseline details in the relevant fields in the General, Attributes, and Relationship tabs.

    When creating a baseline in Dimensions CM, specify the requirements for the baseline on the Relationships tab. Click the Requirement radio button and enter the requirement PUIDs to include in the baseline (the PUID numbers can be browsed). A PUID is a requirement's unique identifier in Dimensions RM.

    The Requirements field on the Relationships tab is prepopulated with the selected requirement.

  6. Click OK.

This process creates one baseline in Dimensions CM and another one in Dimensions RM. The CM baseline contains all objects (items, requests, and requirements), while the RM baseline contains the requirements.

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Notify CM users about changes in RM requirements

Email notification of changes to associated RM requirements requires the following:

  1. For all users who want to receive notifications, the administrator must have previously set up through the Administration Console:

    1. An email subscription to the event 'Someone has made a change to a Requirement related to a Request pending for me'.

    2. The granting of the product-level Perform Requirement Related Operation (PRODUCT_REQUIREMENTMAN) privilege.

  2. The subscribing, privileged Dimensions CM users must have pending requests that are related to requirements.

You can use the Dimensions CM dmemail utility to notify users about changes to associated Dimensions RM requirements. For example, when requirements are added to or removed from a collection, when collections are associated or unassociated from a Dimensions CM project, or when requirements (contained in an associated collection) are updated or replaced.

In addition to the administrator setting up email subscriptions and privileges, you need to edit the following configuration files:

email_config.dat

This configuration file contains settings specific to dmemail.

File location:

  • Windows: %installdir%\dfs 

  • UNIX: $installdir/dfs

When dealing with associated Dimensions RM requirements, you need to add some Dimensions RM-specific settings to the section concerned with databases for dmemail to process, for example:

host = <Dimensions RM_host_name>

dmuser = <Dimensions CM_System_Administrator_User_ID>

By default, <Dimensions CM_System_Administrator_User_ID> is dmsys.
dm.cfg

In this configuration file, you schedule dmemail.

File location:

  • Windows: %installdir% 

  • UNIX: $installdir

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Start a Dimensions RM session

You can start a Dimensions RM session from the desktop client.

To start a Dimensions RM session:

  1. In the desktop client, select Tools > Requirements Management. The Open Requirements Management dialog box opens.

  2. From the Available RM projects list, select the associated Dimensions RM project to work with (the list is not displayed if you have only one association)

  3. Click OK.

    The Dimensions RM browser window opens (accessed through the Dimensions RM integration).

  4. Close the Dimensions RM window to return to the Dimensions CM desktop client.

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See also: