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Product Reviews MKS Integrity Suite 2005 With New Requirements Management
MKS added requirements management to their software configuration management
By: Michael Sayko
Jul. 31, 2005 02:15 PM
The hardest single part of building a software system is deciding precisely what to build. No other part of the conceptual work is so difficult as establishing the detailed technical requirements…Therefore the most important function that software builders do for their clients is the iterative extraction and refinement of the product requirements."
Product Background Rather than developing a requirements management tool from scratch, or acquiring an existing product, MKS incorporated new features into their change management tool, MKS Integrity Manager. These features allow MKS Integrity Manager to collect and manage requirements. In addition, MKS Integrity Manager can be used with MKS Source Integrity to link requirements with source code files that are placed under version control.
Product Architecture MKS Integrity Server manages the process items and source code files that reside on the server. It runs under an application server packaged and installed with the product. It uses FLEXlm as the license manager. MKS Integrity Client consists of three logical pieces: MKS Source Integrity Enteprise, MKS Integrity Manager, and the Administration Client. MKS Source Integrity Enterprise is the version control interface, while MKS Integrity Manager facilitates process and workflow management activities. Both MKS Source Integrity and MKS Integrity Manager share the same GUI. In a separate GUI, the Administration Client allows an administrator to perform common administrative tasks on the Integrity Server.
Installation In addition to the embedded PointBase database, MKS Integrity Server is designed to work with Oracle, MS SQL Server, and DB2 databases. MKS Integrity Server stores process item data, including requirements, in the database. When using one of the supported commercial databases, files checked in to MKS Source Integrity can also be stored in the database. During the installation of MKS Integrity Server, the administrator needs to decide where version controlled files will be stored. If the database option is not selected, files placed under version control with MKS Source Integrity are stored on a file system in Revision Control System (RCS) format.
MKS Requirements 2005
Using Issues to Manage Requirements An administrator defines fields, states, and types using the Administration Client. A user then creates an issue (i.e., an instance of a type) and a query using MKS Integrity Manager. Requirements, features, and tasks are examples of issues that can be managed by MKS Integrity Manager. Prior to the release of MKS Integrity Suite 2005, users of MKS Integrity Manager created issues, such as change requests, to track software development activities like fixing a defect or adding an enhancement. After enhancing MKS Integrity Manager to support requirements management, MKS developed the MKS Requirements 2005 process template to model requirements artifacts. The template consists of seven types (Project, Requirement, Source Document, DOORS Module, Feature, Task, and Test) that take advantage of the enhancements to MKS Integrity Manager. Keep in mind that these types are administrator defined, rather than a base feature of MKS Integrity Manager. For this reason, they can be used as is or modified through the Administration Client. Figure 1 shows how to access these types using the Administration Client.
Tracking Requirements, Analyzing the Impact of Changes, and Visualizing Project Status When using the issues in the process template, a requirement is defined by features that are implemented as tasks and then validated through tests. Figure 2 depicts a chain of relationships from requirements to features to tasks. Although not shown in this figure, change packages link tasks to the source code files that implement them. This is the premise behind task based development. Each check-in to the version control system is associated with a fine-grained development task. One benefit of task based development is that builds of the software application can be described by the features implemented, rather than just the source files modified. This makes the construction of a software application meaningful to a broader audience. Project managers, software testers, and end users can identify the features and fixes incorporated into every build of the software application. MKS Requirements 2005 extends task based development to requirements based development because it maintains relationships from requirements to features to tasks to the versions of source code files that implement the requirements. Now every build can also be described by the requirements that it implements. Reader Feedback: Page 1 of 1
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