Please note : This help page is not for the latest version of Enterprise Architect. The latest help can be found here.

Create Requirements

Topics

Topic

Detail

See also

Usage

Within Enterprise Architect you can create external Requirement elements in a number of ways, such as:

Dragging a Requirement icon from the Toolbox into a specific diagram (which also adds the Requirement to the diagram's parent package - see below)
Dragging text from a text file onto a diagram, to generate a requirement based on that text - see below
Generating an element within a specific package in the Project Browser
Importing requirements from a spreadsheet application such as Excel, via CSV
Creating Requirement elements on the Package Browser or Diagram List for the selected package or diagram
Converting an internal responsibility into an external element, in a selected target package
Importing requirements from another requirements management tool, such as Telelogic DOORS (in this case via the Sparx Systems MDG Link For DOORS integration tool)
 

 

 

 

 

 

Add Elements Directly To Packages

Import Requirements using CSV

Package Browser

Diagram List

Converting an Internal Responsibility

Sparx Systems MDG Link For DOORS

 

How to

To create Requirement elements in a diagram

Step

Action

See also

1

Open the Custom pages on the Toolbox.

 

Custom Group

2

Drag the Requirement element onto the current diagram.

 

 

3

Enter the Name and other details for the requirement.

Enterprise Architect creates a Requirement element in the current diagram and in the diagram's parent package.

 

Requirement Properties

 

Alternatively:

(The following procedure converts a text section heading into an element name and the section text into the element's Notes text.

You can use this procedure to generate elements of a range of types; however, it is particularly useful for generating Requirements from a requirements specification document.)
 

Step

Action

See also

1

Open an Enterprise Architect diagram in the Diagram View.

 

 

2

Open the required document file containing the text you want to generate Requirement elements from (this can be opened in any common text editing tool).

 

 

3

Highlight the required heading and associated text and drag them from the text file into the diagram.

The Toolbox Shortcut menu displays.

 

Toolbox Shortcut Menu

4

Navigate through the menus and select the required element type (in this case, click on Common and Requirement).

 

 

5

Enterprise Architect creates a (Requirement) element in the diagram, and displays the Properties dialog with the section heading in the Name (or equivalent) field and the text in the Notes field; the element is also added to the diagram's parent package.

 

 

Notes

The Requirement element name can be simply descriptive text, with or without a manually-typed reference number; however, as requirements often have to have a unique reference for external checking, you can use the Enterprise Architect auto-numbering facility to automatically apply a numbering system with or without prefixes and suffixes - set the element type to Requirement
External Requirement elements can be displayed with or without an identifying E in the top right corner; to toggle display of this letter, select or deselect the Show stereotype icon for requirements checkbox on the Options dialog, Objects page
Requirement elements can be color coded to indicate their status

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