Auto-Numbering of Requirements

[Crush]

I'm a newbie with EA and am trying to get a grasp on the auto-numbering of requirements feature.

I can set Auto Name Counters under settings, and then every time I enter a new requirement I press the Auto button and an incremented requirement number magically appears, but do I have to press the button every time?

Can't EA just put the number in for every new requirement that I enter?

Also, I've imported from a .csv a list of about 20 requirements that do NOT have numbers. Is there anyway I can have EA auto-number them?

Thanks in advance.
-Crush

 

[N_i_c_o_l_e]

<quote>Can't EA just put the number in for every new requirement that I enter?</quote>

Afraid not.

With RaQuest - an 3rd party tool for requirements  management in EA - you can link to your EA project and all found requirements can automatically have a prefix + id + postfix added in front of their name (the change happens directly in the repository). All subpackages of the identified root requirements package (when you link) can have a proprietary prefix, to be assigned to the contained requirement elements instead of the default "REQ". You can import requirements from a csv file into the EA repository with the same behavior.

[Fred Bevan]

<quote>Can't EA just put the number in for every new requirement that I enter?</quote>

One approach is to apply the autonumber to the 'Alias' field instead of the name. This does happen automatically. It is also more flexible when reporting because you can report the requirement #, name, or both.

[N_i_c_o_l_e]

Good point!

Another workaround for the name property would be to create all requirements from a diagram, so the autonumber appears in the name field:
- take the first requirement from the UML Toolbox
- the rest can be placed on the diagram using [Ctrl]+click (repeat last element)

[Crush]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I like the using the alias field idea. The only problem with that is I dont see the req # when Im looking in the project browser since it's not in the name of the requirement. HOw do I turn on viewing the alias field with the requirement so I can see it?

Thanks again!

 

[Fred Bevan]

HOw do I turn on viewing the alias field with the requirement so I can see it?

You can't see the Alias value in the Project Browser. However, you can right-click on the package and 'View Package as List'. Then you could drag the Alias column to the far left so that is shows before the Name column.

[Crush]

Thanks again Fred.. I actually had done that after playing around with it for a bit... that seems to work rather well for what I need.


The only remaining problem is that Im importing a list of requirements and in that case the alias number doesn't get auto-applied...

It looks like this will only automatically update when I enter the requirements in one by one (typing them in), and not when cut and pasting or importing a list of requirements...  Is there any way to range a list of requirements that were just imported and have them update the alias numbering?

Thanks again!

 8-)

[Crush]

Ok, so we've finally come to the edge of the map?   :-/