Hi all,
Just had a quick look through what the Link to Element Feature dialog actually displays. It doesn't make a lot of sense.
There's a dropdown labelled "Feature Type" which allows you to select one of Attribute, Operation, Change, Defect, Issue, Task or Test (also None).
Then there's a table labelled "Feature" with two columns headed Feature and Description. This table is auto-populated with the available features of the selected type, so you can select one of them for the connector to be linked to (after you OK out of the dialog).
The Feature column of the Feature table shows the names of the respective features, but the Description doesn't show their descriptions. Instead, here's what is shown for each feature category.
Attribute Attribute type
Operation Operation return type
Change "Change"
Defect "Defect"
Issue "Issue"
Task "Task"
Test Test class (eg "Unit"), except for Inspection tests where the name of the test is shown in both columns.
Change, Defect, Issue and Task are all types of maintenance item. No explanation why the other two, Feature (yes, again) and Document, didn't make the cut but that aside, the column obviously shows this property.
So clearly the Description column actually contains a type. Either it should be labelled as such, or (more helpful) it should show the corresponding attribute/operation/test/maintenance item description. They all have them. Furthermore, in the case of the maintenance items what's shown is completely redundant since the type of maintenance item is shown in the Feature Type dropdown just above.
But wait! There's more!
If you compare what's shown in the feature selection dialog with how the corresponding data is presented in a diagram, it makes more sense. Or even less.
Attributes and operations are shown with their types (by default). Maintenance items and tests, however, are shown with their status (default New and Not Run, respectively). If the logic is to show in the selection dialog what you can see in the diagram, then it should be type for attributes and operations, and status for maintenance items and tests. In this case, the column header should then be updated when the Feature Type selection is changed (which updates the table content).
So. Either the Description column should show descriptions, or the column should be changed to show the type or status, as appropriate, and the header should update to reflect this.
Yes?
Also, if you link a connector to a test or maintenance item A you can't then change the link to point to another test or maintenance item B, without first deleting A from the element. So in addition to not working very well, it's broken too.
/Uffe
