Tool Mentor: Using RequisitePro to Develop a Vision Document

Purpose

This tool mentor describes how to use Rational RequisitePro to document a project vision. The Vision is a general vision of the core project's requirements, and provides the contractual basis for the technical requirements.

Related Rational Unified Process Activities:

• Develop Vision

Overview

This Tool Mentor is applicable when running Microsoft Windows 95/NT 4.0.

The Vision document (also called Product Requirements Document) provides a high-level - sometimes contractual - basis for the technical requirements. There can also be a formal Requirements Specification. The vision captures very high-level requirements and design constraints, to give the reader an understanding of the system to be developed. It communicates the fundamental "why's and what's" related to the project and is a gauge against which all future decisions should be validated.

To document the vision using RequisitePro:

1. Create a Vision document.
2. Complete the Vision document.
3. Mark requirements in the Vision document.

1.   Create a Vision Document

The Vision document will contain the product features discovered in the Elicit Stakeholder Needs activity.

• From the RequisitePro’s Tool Palette, select Document=>New. The Document dialog comes up.
• In the Document dialog, fill in the parameters:
• In the Name field, enter "Vision" or "Product Requirements Document"
• In the Description field, enter a short description.
• In the Filename field, enter a filename (RequisitePro will use this filename when saving the Vision document to disk).
• Select the provided "Vision Document Type" document type. The Word template associated with this document type organizes the vision information into logical sections, such as problem statement, user definition, product overview, etc…. RequisitePro will open the newly created Vision document in its Word workplace.

2.   Complete the Vision Document

• In the newly created Vision document, complete each section with pertinent information, replacing directive paragraphs with project-specific information.
• Save the Vision document by selecting Document=>Save on the RequisitePro’s Tool Palette.

3.   Mark Requirements in the Vision Document

In order to maintain dependencies between product features and software requirements, you create RequisitePro requirements from product features outlined in the Product Features section of the Vision document.

• In the Word workplace, for each product feature outlined in the Product Features section of the Vision document, select the text of the product feature and click on the RequisitePro’s Tool Palette Create Requirement from highlighted text icon. The Requirement dialog will be displayed.
• In the Requirement dialog, select FEAT (for Feature) as the requirement type.
• Set some attribute values for the feature requirement:

• Set the Priority attribute to one of the provided values (High, Medium, Low).
• Record the origin of the feature (who asked for it) in the provided Source attribute. Doing so will allow you to keep track of the specific requestors of product features, and therefore potentially have access to these individuals for clarification or negotiation.
• Record the reason for the feature in the Rationale attribute. Doing so will allow you to have tangible information to keep track of the specific requestors of product features, and therefore have access to them for clarification or negotiation.
• Click OK to dismiss the Requirement dialog. The text originally selected is now displayed in a different style and different color than the rest of the Word document content, to visually distinguish product feature requirements from non-requirement text around them.