Rational RequisitePro Technical FAQ

Transcription

1 Rational RequisitePro Technical FAQ Updated for v (SR5) Addins... 9 What do add-ins provide?... 9 How do I specify the executable I want to launch?... 9 Can I rely on the system PATH variable when specifying the exec statement?... 9 Can I restrict an add-in to some users?... 9 Can I remove existing RequisitePro menus?... 9 From where can I launch user add-ins?... 9 Do we provide any add-ins samples?... 9 API (also known as the RPX)... 9 What type of API is it?... 9 What can I do with the API?...10 What can't I do with it?...10 Where do I start?...10 What considerations should be taken when integrating with other applications?...10 Can I open multiple projects via the RPX?...10 Do I have access to the project security via the RPX?...10 How much do RequisitePro and the COM server communicate?...11 What type of RPX documentation is provided?...11 Where can I find script samples?...11 Is there a RPX class offered?...11 Why is there a delay when updating from a script a MS Access-based project?...11 Archives What is the difference between archiving and baselining?...11 How do I archive a RequisitePro project?...12 How do I archive RequisitePro data using my own CM tool?...12 Can I archive more than one project at once?...12 In what type of ClearCase view can I store a RequisitePro archive be stored?...12 Attributes What is the maximum number of attributes?...12 What is the maximum length of Text attributes?...12 What is the maximum length of List attributes values?...12 Can a change in attribute cause a suspect link?...12 Can traceability links have attributes?...13 Is there a unique requirement ID?...13 When are attribute value modifications committed to the database?...13 How do I copy and paste attribute values in Views?...13 Can I update attributes modified outside of RequisitePro?...13 Can I make an attribute mandatory?...13 Can I enforce a requirement evolution process with attributes?...13 What types of attributes are available?...13 Can users define their own attributes?...13 Can I convert attributes from one type to another?...14 Can one attribute depend on other attributes?...14 How can I perform calculations with attributes?...14 Baselines How do I baseline a RequisitePro project?...14 How do I baseline a subset of the requirements?...14 How do I compare two baselines?...14 How do I use a CM tool other than ClearCase to baseline RequisitePro projects?...14 Can I check in/out documents and maintain data integrity?...14 Does RequisitePro provide a way to visualize the differences between two projects?...14 Concurrent Access Page 1 of 59

2 What level of concurrent access does RequisitePro provide?...15 Can several users modify the same document concurrently?...15 What if two users modify the same attributes at once?...15 What is the maximum number of concurrent users RequisitePro supports in a project?...15 Can I make use of the ClearCase multisite facility with RequisitePro?...16 Distributed Access What is RequisitePro distributed solution?...16 Discussion Groups What is a discussion group?...17 What is the purpose of discussion groups?...17 Can discussion groups be used as a change proposal system?...17 Can I filter discussions?...18 Can I query requirements based on discussions?...18 Who can be part of a discussion?...18 Who can view discussion groups?...18 Can I limit discussions to a set of participants?...18 How can a discussion be initiated?...18 Can a discussion be created via ?...18 Are discussions tied to requirements?...18 Can I attach more than one requirement to a discussion?...18 Can I set attributes to a discussion?...18 How do I manage the growth of discussions?...18 Who can close a discussion?...19 Where are discussions stored?...19 Can I have cross-project discussions?...19 What are the size limitations for discussions?...19 Are discussion groups -enabled?...19 How can users participate in discussions?...19 Can I -enable some discussion groups but not others?...19 Can I delete discussions?...19 Can discussions be carried out over the web? Notification - General Does RequisitePro support notification?...20 What protocol is supported?...20 What happens when cannot be delivered?...20 Where can I read more about the Rational Mail Reader?...Error! Bookmark not defined. Can the server run on a UNIX machine?...20 Instead of putting the discussion ID in the subject, can we use a MAPI header?...20 When an message fails to be sent because of bad configuration, where is it reported?...20 Is the Rational Mail Reader setup as a Windows service?...20 What are the MAPI setup considerations? Notification - Discussions Is notification enabled by default?...20 What setup has to happen to enable notification of discussions?...21 Can notification be restricted to some users?...21 What is the format of the discussion sent by RequisitePro?...21 Can -based discussions contain attachments?...21 Can the format be customized?...21 Does each project have its own associated account?...21 How does a user know whether discussion participant have addresses entered in RequisitePro?...21 Can a user reply to an using an HTML formatted ? What will it look like in RequisitePro?...22 If a RequisitePro user gets an from a discussion group and forwards it to a non- RequisitePro user and that person replies back to RequisitePro what will happen? Notification - When a Requirement Changes Can users receive s when requirements change?...22 What setup has to happen to enable notification of requirement changes?...22 Can notification be restricted to some users?...22 Page 2 of 59

3 How do users reply to discussion s?...22 What is the format of the requirement change sent by RequisitePro?...22 Is the requirement change process setup as a Windows service?...22 Exporting Can requirements be exported for use in other applications?...22 Extended Editing What is extended editing?...23 How does Extended Editing work?...23 What are the limitations of extended editing?...23 Can non-textual requirements be edited via extended editing?...23 What happened when several users concurrently modified the same requirement?...23 When is the content of the document updated?...23 What is in-view editing?...24 Can I turn in-view editing off?...24 Hierarchical Requirements What is the value of using hierarchical requirements (HRs)?...24 Are hierarchical relationships a type of traceability relationships?...24 How do hierarchical relationships relate to suspect links?...24 Can I import hierarchical requirements from hierarchical Word styles...24 How do I query hierarchical requirements in a view?...24 Are there any inherited properties between parent and children requirements?...24 What are the limitations of hierarchical requirements?...24 How many hierarchical levels can I use?...25 Importing How do I import requirements stored in another RM tool?...25 Can I import hierarchical requirements from Word heading hierarchies?...25 Can I import hierarchical requirements from a CSV file?...25 Can I import attributes?...25 Can I import traceability?...25 Can I import a PDF file?...25 Can I update requirement text by importing a CSV file?...25 How can I import requirements located in Word tables into RequisitePro?...25 Does the Import Wizard retain Word styles?...26 Can RequisitePro detect requirements in Word documents upon import?...26 Can RequisitePro detect requirements based on keywords upon import?...26 Integrations with IBM Rational Tools Does RequisitePro integrate with Lotus Notes?...26 Does RequisitePro integrate with Websphere Business Modeler?...26 Which versions of Rational ClearCase does RequisitePro support?...26 How does RequisitePro integrate with ClearCase?...26 Can I use ClearCase Word type manager to version RequisitePro documents?...27 Can I use ClearCase dynamic views with RequisitePro?...27 How does RequisitePro integrate with ClearQuest?...27 How does RequisitePro integrate with SoDA?...27 Does RequisitePro integrate with RSA/RSM...27 How does RequisitePro integrate with Rational XDE?...28 How does RequisitePro integrate with Rational Rose?...28 Can I trace requirements to design with Rose?...28 Can I trace requirements to design with RSA/RSM?...28 Can I trace requirements to source code?...28 Can I include Rose diagrams in RequisitePro documents?...28 Can Rose Web Publisher publish Rose models with RequisitePro documents?...28 How does RequisitePro integrate with RUP?...28 How does RequisitePro integrate with Rational TestManager?...28 Integrations with Non-IBM Rational Tools With which business modeling tools does RequisitePro integrate?...29 Can RequisitePro integrate with non-clearcase CM tools?...29 How does RequisitePro integrate with CRM tools (Remedy, Siebel, Vantive, etc.)?...29 Which versions of Microsoft Project does RequisitePro support?...29 How does RequisitePro integrate with MS Project?...29 Page 3 of 59

4 Does integration with MS Project support the requirement Name property?...30 Does RequisitePro integrate with MS Project Central?...30 Does RequisitePro integrate with other project management tools?...30 Does RequisitePro integrate with Mercury TestDirector?...30 Is RequisitePro integrated with Telogic DOORS?...30 Does RequisitePro integrate with any use case tools?...30 Licensing When does RequisitePro check for licenses?...30 Does using the API require a license?...30 Does using the Rational mail reader require a license?...30 Does RequisiteWeb consume a RequisitePro license?...30 Does RequisiteWeb provide free limited access to requirements?...31 When does RequisiteWeb check for licenses?...31 Does RequisiteWeb consume an Oracle license when accessing an Oracle database?...31 Do RequisiteWeb users need an extra license when accessing Enterprise projects?...31 Are RequisiteWeb users require to own a license of MS Word?...31 How is access to RequisiteWeb controlled?...31 Can the license server and the Web server be installed on the same machine?...31 What type of RequisitePro license should I use with terminal services?...31 Metrics What metrics does RequisitePro provide?...31 How do RequisitePro metrics compare to metrics provided in ProjectConsole?...32 How can I move my saved metric reports to a new location?...32 Offline Authoring What is the purpose of document offline authoring?...32 Who might benefit from offline authoring?...32 Can I work with offline documents in exactly the same way I do with online documents?...32 How can I create requirements in the offline document?...33 How do I take a document offline?...33 What security is required to take a document offline?...33 What can a non-requisitepro user do in an offline document?...33 What happens if I delete (unmark) requirements in the offline document?...33 What happens to the original Word document that was taken offline?...33 Can I cancel the offline process?...33 How do I know that a document is offline?...33 Are offline documents real Word documents?...33 Why can't I see the RequisitePro menu in the offline document?...34 Is the offline document dependent on the Word template it was created with?...34 Packaging What components does RequisitePro include?...34 Does RequisitePro ship with extended help?...34 Does the Rational Administrator ship with RequisitePro?...34 Packages What are requirement packages for?...34 Can each user have their personalized package structure?...34 Can requirements packages be synchronized with Rose or XDE packages?...34 In which package are requirements that created directly in a view stored?...34 In which package are requirements that are created in a document stored?...34 Are there any package limitations?...35 How many packages can a RequisitePro project contain?...35 How many levels of package nesting can a RequisitePro project contain?...35 Printing Can I print documents without the requirement marking?...35 How can I have some flexibility on the way RequisitePro print views?...35 Does RequisitePro provide a print preview function?...35 How do I customize the look of printed views?...35 Project Templates Can I create my own project templates to reuse existing project data as a start?...36 Can I modify an existing template?...36 Can I create a project that uses an enterprise database from a project template?...36 Page 4 of 59

5 Does RequisitePro provide industry-specific project templates?...36 Projects How is a new project created in RequisitePro?...36 Can multiple projects be open at once?...36 How do I know who is currently logged on a project?...36 How do I know how the project is opened?...36 Can I remotely log off users?...37 How do I make a copy of a project?...37 How do I move a project?...37 How do I rename a project?...38 How do I split a project?...38 How do I merge two projects?...38 Where can a project be located on the network?...38 How can I create a report about my project structure?...39 How can I determine which user has opened a project with exclusive access?...39 What happens to my RequisitePro projects when I upgrade to a new version of RequisitePro?...39 How is the RequisitePro project list maintained?...39 Can I specify RequisitePro project locations using UNC?...39 What is the.rql for?...39 Reporting What are the built-in reporting capabilities?...39 How do I create additional reports?...40 Can I use Crystal Reports?...40 Can I generate a history report on all requirements?...40 Can I generate a report that shows the location of requirements in a document?...40 Does RequisitePro provide any requirements metrics?...40 Can a report be created on requirements created/changed within a given week?...40 Requirements...40 How many requirements are loaded at project open?...40 How many requirement types can a RequisitePro project contain?...40 Can I inherit from an existing requirement type when creating new requirement type?...40 Can I have customized requirement tags in RequisitePro?...40 What is the maximum length of a requirement text?...40 How do I attach notes to a requirement?...41 Can I create graphical requirements?...41 Can I attach a reference document to a requirement?...41 Can I delete requirements?...41 Where do requirements reside?...41 Does RequisitePro maintain a unique requirement number?...42 How can I move requirements without having RequisitePro renumber them?...42 How can I relocate a requirement from the database to a document?...42 Can I have multiple occurrences of a requirement in one (or many) documents?...42 Can requirement tags be Word heading numbers?...42 How do I control whether a Word heading number is marked as part of a requirement or not?...42 What is the name property of a requirement for?...42 RequisiteWeb...42 What is the architecture of RequisiteWeb?...42 What Web browsers are supported for RequisiteWeb?...43 Can RequisiteWeb run in an Internet as well as an Intranet?...43 Does RequisiteWeb work over firewalls?...43 Where does RequisiteWeb perform most of its processing?...43 Can RequisiteWeb users be on UNIX?...43 Can RequisiteWeb be installed on a UNIX Web Server?...43 Does RequisiteWeb support SSL?...43 Can the RequisiteWeb default 20min logout time be changed by the user?...43 Can the RequisitePro database be located on the Web server machine?...43 How many database connections does RequisiteWeb open?...44 How are requirements documents viewed in RequisiteWeb?...44 Page 5 of 59

6 How does RequisiteWeb know what projects are available?...44 Can I define what the HTML documents look like?...44 Do Word linked objects contained in documents display in RequisiteWeb?...44 Where do most RequisiteWeb install issues stem from?...44 Does RequisiteWeb require MS Word installed?...44 Is RequisiteWeb installed as part of RequisitePro?...44 How do I install RequisiteWeb?...45 Where do I install RequisiteWeb?...45 Must the ReqWebUser be a domain user?...45 Can RequisiteWeb be installed on a Primary/Backup Domain Controller?...45 What is the recommended Web Server configuration for RequisiteWeb?...45 Do I need to install RequisitePro before installing RequisiteWeb?...45 Is there any setup to do before having Web access to an existing RequisitePro project?...45 How much can I customize the RequisiteWeb interface?...45 Is there a user guide for RequisiteWeb?...45 Is RequisiteWeb sold separately from RequisitePro?...45 Should the RequisitePro projects be stored on the Web server?...46 How does RequisiteWeb compare to RequisitePro?...46 What are the functionality differences between RequisiteWeb and RequisitePro?...46 Revisions and Versioning Can I version my documents in RequisitePro?...46 How do I keep track of multiple versions of a requirement?...47 Does RequisitePro use ClearCase versioning scheme?...47 Does RequisitePro record traceability changes?...47 Is there any way to revert a requirement to an earlier version after a change is committed?47 What is the maximum length of the Change Description field?...47 When can a user modify the requirement Revision Label?...47 How does RequisitePro record the change description of requirements modified in Views?...47 Traceability - Cross Project What is the value of cross-project traceability?...47 How does cross-project traceability work?...47 What are the limitations of cross-project traceability?...48 What are the guidelines for using cross-project traceability?...48 Can I modify requirements of a project externally connected to my project?...48 How does relocating a project affect cross-project traceability?...48 Can I view the documents for an externally linked project?...48 Can I use cross-project traceability across projects using different databases?...48 What are some database considerations when using cross-project traceability?...49 Traceability Can I trace requirements to design?...49 Can I trace requirements to test cases?...49 Can traceability links have attributes?...49 Does RequisitePro record traceability changes?...49 Should I use Trace To or Trace From?...49 Can I import traceability links?...49 Does RequisitePro provide revisions for traceability links modifications?...50 How do I know what caused a link to go suspect?...50 Security What security does RequisitePro provide?...50 Can I use the users and user groups already created for one project in a new project?...50 Is there a way to prevent view access to some requirements in RequisitePro?...50 What are the security recommendations?...50 Can a user belong to more than one security group?...50 How does RequisitePro manage IT security policies?...50 Can I prevent users from deleting requirements?...50 Does RequisitePro support LDAP for user management?...50 What file level permissions are needed for the for the RequisitePro project directories?...51 Supported Environments Page 6 of 59

7 Can RequisitePro or RequisiteWeb be installed on networks running Microsoft's Active Directories?...51 Can UNIX customers use RequisitePro?...51 Can RequisitePro be used with Microsoft Terminal Server or Citrix?...51 Can RequisitePro run in a Windows emulator on UNIX?...51 Can RequisitePro be used on a Novell network?...51 System Requirements What are the system recommendations for RequisitePro?...51 What are the system recommendations for RequisiteWeb?...51 Must I install RequisiteWeb on Windows 2000 Advanced Server?...51 Upgrades and Release Numbers Did the project format change between the current release and the release before that?...51 Can a team use multiple RequisitePro versions?...52 How do I convert an older RequisitePro project to the current release?...52 Views In which package are requirements that are created in a view stored?...52 Can I filter a traceability matrix with attribute values?...52 How do I copy and paste attribute values?...52 Can I share RequisitePro saved views across projects?...52 Can I change the font in Views?...52 Can I order requirements in views by their order in their document?...52 Word Integration and Word Document Issues How big can Word documents be?...52 How many Word documents can I store in a RequisitePro project?...53 How can I save Word documents quickly?...53 Can I create a Word version of a RequisitePro document?...53 How can I split a RequisitePro Word document?...53 Can Word documents contain graphics?...53 Where can Word documents reside?...53 Are Word documents saved in the database?...53 How do I rename a Word document?...54 How do I relocate a RequisitePro Word document?...54 Can I create a Word document from a view?...54 Can I move requirements that were originally created in the database to be in a RequisitePro Word Document?...54 Can I use a SoDA template as a RequisitePro document outline?...54 Can I publish RequisitePro Word documents to the Web?...54 Does RequisitePro come with a set of predefined Word document templates?...54 Can I print a RequisitePro Word document without seeing marked requirements?...54 Can RequisitePro attributes be displayed in a RequisitePro Word document?...55 How do I branch Word documents, having non-requisitepro users team members review them and merging them back in RequisitePro?...55 Can I start RequisitePro by double-clicking on a RequisitePro Word document?...55 Are RequisitePro Word documents "real" Word files?...55 How does RequisitePro communicate with MS Word?...55 Are there any limitations in RequisitePro due to the Word integration?...55 Is there a file format change between Word2000, Word2002 (XP) and Word2003?...55 Can various users use different versions of Word within the same RequisitePro project?...56 Should MS Word be installed locally?...56 Does RequisitePro install a special version of Word?...56 How do I check which version of Word RequisitePro is using?...56 How do I upgrade from one version of Word to another in RequisitePro?...56 Can I save RequisitePro documents with a.doc extension?...56 Can I use auto save in Word to protect me from losing work in the event of a network crash?...56 Can I use Word master documents with RequisitePro?...56 Are there any specific Word settings that optimize RequisitePro performance?...57 Can requirements be located in Word tables?...57 What if my existing Word document contains attribute information that I now want in RequisitePro?...57 Page 7 of 59

8 Can RequisitePro work with other word processors than MS Word?...57 Can I use RequisitePro with FrameMaker instead of Word?...57 Can I protect my Word documents from viruses?...57 Can I use Word Track Changes and RequisitePro?...57 Can I use Word to modify RequisitePro documents outside of RequisitePro?...57 Can I write non-requirements documents while in RequisitePro?...58 How can RequisitePro handle updated versions of requirements documents?...58 Problem: I get runtime errors about Word Problem: Word - "this document was modified outside of RequisitePro" error...59 Problem: One of my users was only given read access, yet, that user gets an error when opening a project or a Word document?...59 Problem: Word generates a "the project item cannot be deleted" on document open...59 Problem: I can't reopen RequisitePro docs for writing after Word crashes...59 Page 8 of 59

9 Addins What do add-ins provide? Add-ins allow users to add user-defined menus to any menu (except the Window menu) on the RequisitePro toolbar. How do I specify the executable I want to launch? Each add-in uses a textual MNU file to define the executable name and the exact menu item label. Examples of MNU syntax are provided in the online help. Can I rely on the system PATH variable when specifying the exec statement? Yes, the MNU grammar supports using the system PATH variable. For instance you can just say "exec Notepad.exe", and it relies on the PATH variable to find it. Can I restrict an add-in to some users? Yes. Add-in menu items can be specific to the local machine where RequisitePro is running from, or they can be specified as project-wide for all users. Can I remove existing RequisitePro menus? No. You can only add to existing RequisitePro menus. From where can I launch user add-ins? You can add menu item to launch add-ins from any existing top-level menu except from the Window menu. Do we provide any add-ins samples? Yes, sample API scripts are available on the developerworks Plug-ins and Add-ins page. API (also known as the RPX) What is the value of this API? The RequisitePro Extensibility Interface provides a published API for customers and software specialists to programmatically access and modify RequisitePro data. The API is guaranteed to be consistent from release to release. Using the API, you can: Create integration between RequisitePro and other applications. These integrations can optionally be launched from the RequisitePro menu (using the add-in mechanism), or be self-running. Modify existing RequisitePro data programmatically. For instance you might want to create attributes that are derived from other attribute values (The AttributeCalculator API script already does this). Perform queries not provided by RequisitePro (the query engine part of the API support more queries than what RequisitePro provides). What type of API is it? There are really two APIs: The RequisitePro Extensibility Interface (RPX) - /bin/reqpro.dll The RequisitePro type lib - /bin/ireqproguiapp.tlb The RPX is a COM-based API. COM being a language-independent technology, the API can be used to create C++, Java or VB programs to interact programmatically with RequisitePro data. The RPX is a GUIless API. The IReqproGUIApp.tlb typelib allows customers to make programmatic changes to the data displayed in the RequisitePro Windows client, while RequisitePro is running. Page 9 of 59

10 What can I do with the API? Most of the RequisitePro functionality is available via the RPX. Some RPX functionality even goes beyond what RequisitePro provides. For instance with the RPX you can open multiple projects. The query engine is also more powerful with the RPX than from the RequisitePro user interface. Using the IReqroGUIApp typelib, you can: create, open, save and close RequisitePro documents, display the Requirement Properties dialog for a specified requirement, display the Select a Requirement dialog for user to select a requirement, insert an existing requirement into a document, update the text of a requirement located in a document, open a project into RequisitePro, return requirement pointers to selected requirements in RequisitePro bring forward either RequisitePro or the Word interface select items in the requirements explorer get the current pane in focus (explorer or view) refresh the explorer or current view Open a view get the currently selected requirements in a view What can't I do with it? The RequisitePro Extensibility Interface does not allow you to: Create a project Create or modify RequisitePro documents Take documents offline Have full control of the currently running instance of RequisitePro (see the IGUIReqproApp.tlb typelib documentation for available control) Change a requirement's version number Import CSV files Modify some view properties, such as column-width settings, attributes shown, show direct/indirect traceability. Where do I start? To get a feel for the API, simply start any application with a VBA editor (Word, Excel). Select Tools Macro VBA Editor. When the VBA Editor comes up, click F2. This will bring the VBA Object Browser. In the Editor window, right click and select References. Once in the References list, select RequisitePro Extensibility Interface. Click OK on the References dialog to dismiss it. On the Object Browser, click on the listbutton listing <All Libraries> and select RequisitePro Extensibility Interface. This will display the RPX methods. To bring up the GUI App typelib objects, you need to reinvoke the References dialog and browse to the /RequisitePro/bin/rqguiapp.tbl file. What considerations should be taken when integrating with other applications? When writing integrations with 3rd party application, make sure you refer to requirements in your code by GUID (Requirement.Key), not the value of the Requirement ID system attribute. This attribute changes when the RequisitePro project is updated from one type of database to another. The GUID also remains the same. Can I open multiple projects via the RPX? Yes. Do I have access to the project security via the RPX? Yes. Can I attach hooks to requirement creation/update/delete? RequisitePro does not provide hooks/event triggers, but the polling mechanism needed to implement a event trigger like functionality can be extracted from the Notification of Requirement Changes script posted on developerworks. The script provides an example of how one can poll requirement information at regular times and attach actions based on changes. Note that notification of requirement changes is a Page 10 of 59

11 functionality provided in RequisitePro. The script simply provides an example on how one could change requirement information from an event trigger (ex: change in attribute value) Because the API is not informed of requirement changes, scripts need to poll that information on a regular basis. How much do RequisitePro and the COM server communicate? RequisitePro communicates via its COM server (the RPX) to do the following actions: open projects, manage discussions, setup and notification, queries, Rose integration, MS Project Integration, and requirement metrics. However, the COM server and RequisitePro are two separate applications. For instance, RequisitePro directly get and put data from and to the underlying database, without going thru the COM server. For instance, RequisitePro does not inform the RPX that a requirement has been created/deleted/modified by the RequisitePro user. When RequisitePro starts, it automatically starts its COM server. When a RequisitePro user opens or closes a project, the COM server actually opens/closes the project for RequisitePro. You can programmatically get the running instance of the RequisitePro GUI's COM server, and ask it to give you a reference to the currently open project. The reference is a reference to a Project object belonging to the COM server. If you do this, don't call CloseProject() in your script as the RequisitePro users will see the project closing. What type of RPX documentation is provided? A complete online reference manual is shipped. The online API manual is accessible from the RequisitePro Tools menu (Help Extensibility Interface Reference). The RPX online reference manual provides full documentation for the RPX Object Model and interface, as well as the IGUIReqproApp typelib. It includes definition, syntax, and sample code for the RPX properties and methods. Where can I find script samples? Basic examples are provided as part of the RPX online help. Scripts are available on the developerworks Plug-ins and Add-ins page. Is there a RPX class offered? No. The best way to learn is to review the samples posted on developerworks on the Plug-ins and Add-ins page. Why is there a delay when updating from a script a MS Access-based project? RequisitePro makes two database connections: one for RequisitePro and one for the extensibility interface. MS Access experiences a few-second delay in updating data between multiple database connections. Enterprise databases do not exhibit this behavior. The result of this delay is that information may not be updated in a timely fashion in the RequisitePro interface. From an API script, the following may occur: if you change a requirement in an API script, then call the Refresh API call, RequisitePro does not display the update. The workaround is to create a pause in your API script, and make the Refresh call again. This will ensure the update in RequisitePro. Archives What is the difference between archiving and baselining? Archiving is a process to protect project data usually as part of a backup strategy, while Baselining is a process to manage change, reduce project risks and avoid scope creep. A baseline takes a snapshot of requirements with the goal of comparing baselines and to revert to an earlier state of the project. The major difference between RequisitePro archives and RequisitePro baselines is in the purpose and person who performs the operation. Archiving is done for data protection, and usually performed by IT who may have no knowledge of RequisitePro. Baselining is done for change management purposes and is usually done by the project administrator, typically familiar with the project. Page 11 of 59

12 One additional difference to note is that RequisitePro baselines do not require DBA involvement, as the database is streamed to XML files. However RequisitePro archives do require DBA involvement when the project uses an Enterprise database. When using Enterprise databases, the DBA needs to copy the database portion of the project to the archive directory specified in the RequisitePro Archive directory. How do I archive a RequisitePro project? The RequisitePro administrator should archive RequisitePro projects as a standard backup mechanism. The File Project Administration Archive RequisitePro Archive menu option provides archiving for any RequisitePro project. Regardless of the database type, this function allows the RequisitePro administrator to define an archive directory and the archive function will automatically copy all documents, as well as the project RQS file to that directory. If you use MS Access, then the database file (MDB) is also stored in that archive directory, which completes the project archive. If the database is stored in an Enterprise database (DB2, Oracle or SQL Server), RequisitePro does not automatically archive the database, but does provide DBA guidelines on how to do this. This is because enterprise databases are maintained by a DBA, they are not stored in a single file and the database files are not necessarily located in the project directory. Additionally, more than one project may be stored in an enterprise database. Because of these differences, RequisitePro cannot automatically archive the database portion of a RequisitePro project stored in an enterprise database. A database administrator will need to follow the online help guidelines on backing up and restoring the database portion of the project. How do I archive RequisitePro data using my own CM tool? You can archive the documents into any SCM tool by performing a File Project Administration Archive RequisitePro Archive into a user-defined directory. That function will copy the project RQS file as well as all documents in the project into the specified directory, making it easy to then check in all project files into the CM tool of choice. If the project uses in MS Access, then the database file (.MDB) will also be archived into that archive directory. If the project uses an Enterprise database, then the DBA needs to export the database information and check in the database export file into the CM tool. Can I archive more than one project at once? No. You need to open a project to archive it. If a project is connected to external projects (to make use of cross-project traceability), you should archive the external projects as soon as you archive the local project. And you need to open each project individually to do this. In what type of ClearCase view can I store a RequisitePro archive be stored? RequisitePro can use any type of ClearCase view. The ClearCase configuration specification for the view, which defines how the check-in will occur (on the main branch or another branch) doesn't matter to the archive. Attributes What is the maximum number of attributes? No limit. What is the maximum length of Text attributes? 16K characters. What is the maximum length of List attributes values? 32 character long. Can a change in attribute cause a suspect link? Yes. Go to the Project Properties dialog and access the Attributes tab. Select the requirement type that includes the attribute that you want to trigger suspect. Select the attribute on the left and click Edit below. Page 12 of 59

13 Notice on the right a "Change Affects Suspect" checkbox. Check the checkbox. By turning this on, any change in that attribute will cause suspect Can traceability links have attributes? No. Is there a unique requirement ID? Yes. The system attribute Requirement ID is never changed once a requirement has been created (unless you convert a MS Access project to a multiple-project Enterprise database, in which cases key clashes must be resolved and Requirement IDs change). When are attribute value modifications committed to the database? Attributes values modifications (from the Views workplace, the Requirement Properties dialog, RequisiteWeb or the API) take effect immediately. There is no concept of committing attribute value changes, unlike document content modification that does not take effect until you save the document. How do I copy and paste attribute values in Views? Use CTRL-C, CTRL-V and CTRL-X to copy, paste and cut attribute values. Make sure you clicked on the attribute cell before using the key sequence to ensure you are in cell edit mode. Can I update attributes modified outside of RequisitePro? Yes, you can export a CSV file from a RequisitePro view. Import that file into the tool in which you will be modifying the requirement attribute (for instance Excel), save your work in CSV format and import the CSV file into RequisitePro. RequisitePro will key on the requirement tags first exported, then the import will update the values of the requirements attributes. Note that traceability information is stored as Trace-To and Trace-From attributes. These attributes are not imported by the RequisitePro Import Wizard but the Setting traceability using the RPX RequisitePro Extensibility script allows import of traceability links from a CSV file. Also to update requirement text from a CSV file, use the Update/Import requirements from CSV files RequisitePro Extensibility script Can I make an attribute mandatory? No, RequisitePro does not enforce setting attribute values. Can I enforce a requirement evolution process with attributes? RequisitePro does not provide a state matrix (the way ClearQuest does for change requests). Customers can put in place a requirement evolution process (first requirements can be proposed, then moved to accepted, then implemented, validated and so on), but RequisitePro will not restrict state transition. What types of attributes are available? Text: free form text, 16K max Single List: list of 32-character long words. Exclusive selection. Multi List: list of 32-character long words. Multiple selections allowed. Real Integer Date Time "ClearQuest Integration" attribute: queriable like a Text attribute. Stores ClearQuest record Ids when associating ClearQuest records and RequisitePro requirements. URL Link: stores a URL address and open the page using the default Web browser from RequisitePro Can users define their own attributes? Yes, provided that the user as 'project structure' security privilege (defined in File Project Administration Security). RequisitePro provides 11 system attributes (package, location, author, revision, date, time, reason, trace-from, trace-to, root tag#, requirement ID), and provides predefined requirement attributes (priority, status, cost, difficulty, stability and assigned to) as part of project templates that each new project is Page 13 of 59

14 based on. The RequisitePro project administrator can then remove any of the non-system attributes and add as many new attributes, as needed. Can I convert attributes from one type to another? The only attribute type conversion available is from single-value to multi-value lists and back. Can one attribute depend on other attributes? RequisitePro attributes are independent in nature. However you can establish attribute dependencies (to display calculated attributes for instance) using the AttributeCalculator script. How can I perform calculations with attributes? RequisitePro does not provide any support for calculations on requirement attribute values. You can export attribute matrices to CSV files and perform the calculation in MS Excel. To perform a calculation in RequisitePro, use the AttributeCalculator script to compute values of some attributes based on values of other attributes. Baselines How do I baseline a RequisitePro project? There are two ways to make project baselines. Option 1: Customers already using ClearCase UCM can include requirements in their baselines. UCM baselines are not initiated in RequisitePro, but in the Rational Administrator where a Rational project is created. The Rational project points to a set of artifacts including a RequisitePro project. Refer to Baselining Requirements Assets white paper. No baseline comparison is available with this function, and you must baseline the entire project. Option 2: The other option is to use the RequisitePro Baseline Manager (Tools>RequisitePro Baseline Manager). Baseline Manager provides more flexibility in that it does not require any CM tool (although you can check in baselines in a CM tool), it allows partial baselines (subset of requirements) to be created, and it allows baseline comparisons. How do I baseline a subset of the requirements? Yes, Baseline Manager allows you to create package baselines, document baselines and attribute matrix baselines. How do I compare two baselines? Yes. Baselines created from the RequisitePro Baseline Manager (Tools>RequisitePro Baseline Manager) can be compared using the Compare Baselines option in Baseline Manager. Refer to the Rational University Web-Based Training module on Baseline Manager. How do I use a CM tool other than ClearCase to baseline RequisitePro projects? Yes. Baseline Manager simply creates a set of XML files to represent a baseline. You can simply check-in these files in the SCM tool of your choice. Can I check in/out documents and maintain data integrity? No, archives should be performed at the project level via the File Project Administration Archive mechanism. Archiving only the documents of a RequisitePro project only archive the requirement text. Related information (requirement attributes, revision histories, discussion groups, traceability links) stored in the database is not archived. Does RequisitePro provide a way to visualize the differences between two projects? Yes. Baseline Manager provides a visual compare of two baselines. Page 14 of 59

15 Concurrent Access What level of concurrent access does RequisitePro provide? Because RequisitePro merges the document world and the database world, concurrent access has two facets: As far as document editing access, RequisitePro provides the same level of concurrent access than MS Word. When one user opens a document, other users receive the so and so has write access to this document. Do you want to open a read-only copy?. Because of this Word behavior, you want to use small documents, each ideally having its own owner. Note that user can modify the text of requirements located in documents without requiring users to open the document. You can modify the text of these requirements from 4 different locations: Attribute matrices views The Requirement Properties dialog RequisiteWeb The RequisitePro API The text is immediately recorded in the database, and later updated in the document when a user opens the document in RequisitePro. As far as database access, RequisitePro uses standard database mechanisms, including record locking, to control multi-user concurrency. RequisitePro uses optimistic record locking which locks a record during the update operation. This mechanism offers the most concurrency. When a requirement is modified, all necessary records are locked to ensure exclusive access so the modification can occur. Once the record is updated, it is unlocked. If the necessary records cannot be locked, RequisitePro tries to update again. RequisitePro tries the update three times. If the update fails three times, a message displays notifying you why the updates cannot occur and identifies the user that has the records locked, whenever possible. Can several users modify the same document concurrently? Several users can modify the requirement part of the same document, using the extended editing feature. Editing the non-requirement sections of a RequisitePro document requires one user opening that document. RequisitePro uses the Word concurrent access model for document access. Once one user has opened a document with write access, other users will get the usual So and So is having write access to this document. Do you want to open it read-only?. Because of this, it is very important to inform customers that they should be thinking ahead of time how they will document requirements. We recommend using multiple small documents. One of our customers has about 400 documents in their RequisitePro project. There is no overhead associated with the number of documents, as documents are not stored in the project. In essence, RequisitePro maintains a pointer to the document where a requirement was created. However, extended editing allows concurrent access to the requirements in the same document because users are no longer required to open the document to edit the text of requirements in that document. What if two users modify the same attributes at once? When one user is modifying a requirement attribute, a locking mechanism is put in place so that other users cannot modify that attribute concurrently. RequisitePro uses the underlying database locking mechanism. Enterprise databases use a record-level locking while MS Access uses a page-locking system. When using databases using a page-locking mechanism, the requirement being modified, as well as his (5 or 10) neighbors in the database can only be modified by that user at that time. What is the maximum number of concurrent users RequisitePro supports in a project? The maximum number of concurrent users is dictated by the underlying database used with RequisitePro. With MS Access, approximately 5 concurrent users is a practical number. Enterprise databases typically allow 100+ concurrent users. Also to be considered is how distributed users are. If users are accessing the RequisitePro project from different locations, then MS Access performance degrades quickly as the number of users increases. This is because of the amount of data that must be transferred. When Access runs a query the data must first be transferred to the local machine where the query is executed, then the results are displayed. Enterprise databases on the other hand perform much better across the LAN/WAN because the query is run at the server and only the result is sent to the users machine. So performance is much better with Enterprise databases. Page 15 of 59

16 Can I make use of the ClearCase multisite facility with RequisitePro? No. A RequisitePro project is made of a database and a set of documents. ClearCase multisite does not branch and merge databases. Consequently, the ClearCase multisite feature cannot be used to branch and merge a set of requirements. We are actively investigating ways to integrate tighter RequisitePro and ClearCase. The RequisitePro multisite usage model is to use RequisiteWeb. Versioning is done at the project level. Distributed Access What is RequisitePro distributed solution? RequisitePro was architected to run in a LAN environment. This architecture does not land itself to remote sites accessing the same project from the native Windows client. It is possible that sites connected with a fast and dedicated network (not many other application sharing the network bandwidth) can work that way but this is not an environment for which the current RequisitePro architecture was designed. Additionally performance benchmarks generated by IBM Rational would likely not be meaningful to all customers (who have different network topology and different applications contributing to their network traffic). Below are considerations you should take into account when implementing distributed access to RequisitePro projects. RequisiteWeb provides a solution to companies building software in a distributed environment (where team members reside at different sites). RequisiteWeb uses a JSP-based technology that provides faster access than ASP-based technologies (because JSP pages are already compiled, and therefore faster to display). From RequisiteWeb remote users can create, display and delete documents, edit requirement properties (text, attributes, links) (including modifying text of requirements in documents), engage in discussions groups, and create requirements directly in the RequisitePro project database. Additionally, RequisiteWeb users who have access to MS Word can take documents offline from RequisiteWeb, edit them in Word and bring them back online from RequisiteWeb. From the offline document in Word, RequisiteWeb users can mark requirements and delete existing requirements, as well as any of the document content. For more details on offline authoring of documents, visit the Offline Authoring section of the FAQ. Customers already owning a Citrix server may also consider providing terminal access to RequisitePro as a distributed solution. This scenario likely only works for customers who already have invested in a Citrix or Windows Terminal Solution (WTS), as servers servicing these technologies tend to be very expensive. For instance, for each RequisitePro user logged in the Citrix/WTS server, approximately 40MB or RAM is required on that server (not counting extra RAM for opening Word documents). Obviously concurrent access to hundreds of people is not possible in such environment. So a terminal server solution would work well for a highly distributed but small team. For operations that do not involve opening documents, remote users can use RequisitePro over a VPN to open their project remotely. Performance is not as fast as running the client locally, but it is a solution for minor updates. Document Considerations A very important element to consider in a distributed environment is to keep RequisitePro documents stored at the site where they are mostly updated because Word does not perform well when trying to open Word documents across a network. Users at other sites can view the documents over RequisiteWeb. From RequisiteWeb remote users can also download a Word copy of the requirement documents for editing (see Offline editing).. Database Considerations If distributed teams are connected on a reasonably fast network, they should be using an Enterprise database to store requirements. The big advantage of using Enterprise databases (DB2, Oracle, SQL Server) is their ability to access data without a file system mounted at each location. This is a significant difference from MS Access that does not perform as well in such an environment (MS Access requires a file system mounted at each location, which impacts performance). Enterprise databases share data across sites by communicating at the socket level. Not having to require mounting a file system over the network improves substantially the accessibility to external projects and consequently improves RequisitePro performance in a distributed environment. The network topology remains the same whether Enterprise databases or MS Access are used, but performance of Enterprise databases allows companies that could not rely on MS Access to deploy RequisitePro in a distributed environment. Oracle and DB2 databases also Page 16 of 59