Considerations for Working with Requirements
Use requirements specifications as design inputs for your concepts, and as measures of design completeness. Alternately, you can build requirements specifications from planned concept designs, for use in future product redesigning activities.
Requirements, Concept Components, and References
Assign one or more requirements specifications to one or more concept components to track and measure design goals objectively across a concept structure.
When you assign a requirements specification to a concept component, the link to the requirement is automatically stored as a reference field in the concept component metadata. The assigned requirement is highlighted by a check mark.
Click the check mark in the Assigned column to view all the components that requirement is assigned to.
You can't assign a requirement to an item. However, when you convert a concept to an item or item structure, the External Relationship data points to the item in the concept structure.
Requirements Filter
Use the Search function in the Requirements tab to filter the requirements specifications added in the concept design work area, by predefined operators. You can also perform an advanced search for requirements using combinations of operators.
Search results within the requirements specification structure are highlighted by markers. The Previous and Next icons let you step through the search results sequentially.
Requirements Versions
Requirements can undergo version updates while they're assigned to your concept. The concept structure retains the version of the specification you assign, irrespective of the newer revisions available. In parallel, you can assign only the latest version of requirements specifications, available at that moment, in your concept structure.
An icon highlights requirements that have undergone changes after you assigned them in your concept. Click the highlighted requirements specification name to view the linked version, and to navigate to the latest version.
Fulfilled Requirements
When a concept component is detailed enough to fulfill an assigned requirements specification, use the Fulfilled marker in the panel, as a measure of tracking design completeness. You can then analyze the concept structure to determine how far your concept design has progressed.
Requirements Traceability
Generate the Requirements Traceability report from the concept structure work area to view the concept structure and all its associated linkages in xml form. For example, you can trace version-specific linkages between ideas, requirements, concepts components, items, and test cases, in a single view. The xml report also lets you determine which assigned requirements have been fulfilled, or ideas have been met.