Traceability/Relationship Diagrams

[amod072]

Hi All,

I'm currently trying to work with a model that I may use in the future to manage multiple projects. Each project being stored within a different package in the model. Each individual project currently stores a set of requirements, use cases and system components among other things.

What i'm trying to do is to find a simpler way to be able to create diagrams/impact analysis' which will show the relationship between system components of one project and the requirements of another project (lets say that a requirement in one project is related to a requirement in another project which affects a certain system: if the first requirement is modified/disrupted - I need a way to show which system components will be as well as the result of it).

I've had a look around but am unable to find anything - are there any scripts/shortcuts in which I can use to achieve what I want rather than manually adding the related elements into a diagram and going through 3-5 relationship levels? The more projects that are added in, the more tedious and messy this process becomes.

Thanks,
amod

[qwerty]

Have you looked into the Relationship Matrix?

q.

[Geert Bellekens]

Hi amod

I don't think there's something out of the box, but you can certainly create a little script that create or updates diagrams like that.

If you wanted, and you use my EA-Matic addin you can even make diagrams that keep are automatically always up to date.

I did something similar as an example script: Self Maintaining diagram in EA with EA-Matic
This example uses the relations of an element, but you should be able to easily adapt that to your specific needs.

Geert

[Uffe]

Hello,


What you're talking about there is what I usually refer to as "inferred relationships", and UML (and thus EA) doesn't deal well with those -- you have to follow the links step by step.

Keeping track of that in a diagram, even a self-updating one, is indeed tedious and very quickly becomes unmanageable for anything but trivial sets of requirements (ie dozens rather than the thousands you get in any decent-sized project).

I'd write a browser script which follows the branching connectors backwards from the selected element and stops when it hits something that isn't a requirement. The exact details would of course depend on what connectors you use, but it shouldn't be hard to do.

You could also create a document template to generate full requirements tracing reports on your model.


Cheers,


/Uffe