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Topic Title: Effective use of Doors
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Created On: 22-Jul-2008 18:16
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 22-Jul-2008 18:16
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Tracy Monteith

Posts: 33
Joined: 21-Dec-2005

I am my project's requirements manager. I am catching considerable flack because I'm using DOORS. My remote team members are not. The team members complained that they can't access the requirements. The remote team has access to doors licenses but is choosing not to use them.

I know DoorsNet is a solution, but realistically getting this product and getting them to use it is not achievable in the short tearm. For purposes of this thread, DoorsNet is not an option. Setting that aside:


1. What is my best argument that the team should use doors? How is Doors intended to be used on diverse teams to support the overall requirements lifecycle process? Are there any other consequences (other than the current frustration) that will result from having only one guy (me) being the doors guy?

2. All of my requirements point seperate source modules in a seperate DOORS Directory 'Source'. I produced a spreadsheet extract of my requirements for the team. They are now complaining about the lack of links. For links, I had origonally instructed the team to reference the doors module. This is not good enough. The Team wants a spreadsheet export that shows the requirement AND source.
How do I do this? Is there a DXL that will produce a spreadsheet source included.
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 22-Jul-2008 18:29
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Scott Boisvert

Posts: 348
Joined: 14-Apr-2006

The team members complained that they can't access the requirements.


I'm assuming from your post that they can log into DOORS, just not see the requirements modules. If this is the case, check your permissions on the directories and modules.

1. What is my best argument that the team should use doors? How is Doors intended to be used on diverse teams to support the overall requirements lifecycle process? Are there any other consequences (other than the current frustration) that will result from having only one guy (me) being the doors guy?


Traceability, Traceability and uhh...Traceability. This is DOORS biggest benefit. There shouldn't be just one person using DOORS, at least that's my theory, it puts too much work on one person and it creates extra work. If they are creating/modifying requirements and then passing them onto you to do in DOORS, that's just plain silly. Teach them how to use DOORS and let them make the changes.

2. All of my requirements point seperate source modules in a seperate DOORS Directory 'Source'. I produced a spreadsheet extract of my requirements for the team. They are now complaining about the lack of links. For links, I had origonally instructed the team to reference the doors module. This is not good enough. The Team wants a spreadsheet export that shows the requirement AND source.


Teach them how to use DOORS.....

Though a DXL script could do what you're looking for.

To me it sounds like you just have a stubborn group of people that don't want to move forward with the times. You need to force the issue and train them how to use the tool. I've said it before DOORS ain't cheap, and its a waste of your company's money to have all those licenses sitting there not being used.

-------------------------
Scott Boisvert
Engineering Tools Administrator
L-3 Communications - Avionics Systems
scott.boisvert@l-3com.com

Edited: 22-Jul-2008 at 18:30 by Scott Boisvert
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 22-Jul-2008 21:18
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Justin Mulhearn

Posts: 6
Joined: 8-Apr-2004

Teaching them to use DOORS is right on.

As part of that effort, try getting in touch with the Telelogic Application Engineer assigned to your company and ask him or her for help. Explaining the advantages of using DOORS and traceability to your coworkers is what AEs do best, and they can probably put together a webinar for your remote team. If the remote team is available to come into the office, you can ask the AE if they're willing to run a "DOORS Lunch and Learn" seminar. Essentially, Telelogic will bring in lunch, talk to your team, figure out what's working and what's not, and make suggestions to improve the process.
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 22-Jul-2008 22:16
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Uma Unnikrishnan

Posts: 14
Joined: 8-Jul-2008

I too have had to face similar problems and though we still have to go a long way, atleast the initial teething problems are over. As mentioned by Scotty already, why have a costly tool if you just want to treat it as a repository??

What I did was to make the management realize that they are paying a lot for a tool and not reaping any benefits out of it. I then got an agreement from the leads that they would use DOORS when writing their requirements. Once the leads agreed to it the team members had to go along with it. We also agreed to it that if things don't work out, if it is adding to their efforts and is not of any help we will not try adding other lower level reqmnts documents into DOORS.
I then created a simple but effective flash demo on how to use DOORS, this worked really well. A classroom session hardly works, with a demo, they can always pause or forward to any section and imitate the actions. Once they realized it wasn't rocket science, we got going. So I now have atleast 25 users accessing DOORS and atleast 10 of them working on DOORS off and on. Am starting to look at how to get other disciplines also to use it
Now I have just got to work on getting them to link requirements, but atleast DOORS is here to stay.

This is a demo from Telelogic, showing the capabilities of the tool. Maybe they will see the advantage of using the tool.
http://www.telelogic.com/campa...rs_auto_demo/index.cfm

If you start writing scripts and generating reports, they will keep finding excuses not to use the tool. There is this freeware called wink that you can use to create demos - it lets you add captions and even record voice.

If it is the location that is a problem, then you could probably use it on a Citrix environment. Ours is a multi site project with users from 3 different countries, we access DOORS thru a Windows Terminal Server.

~uma

Edited: 22-Jul-2008 at 22:16 by Uma Unnikrishnan
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 23-Jul-2008 00:09
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Tracy Monteith

Posts: 33
Joined: 21-Dec-2005

Thanks good suggestions, but I lost my case. Lead Engineer has made a decision that only 1 person will have DOORS access and all other people will get a spreadsheet dump.

Mind you I have 6 requirements modules that have links to 12 source modules. I have to figure out how to write a DXL to produce an excel spreadsheet that contains requirements plus linked source data.I'd like to get one worksheet per module. I'll begin looking the DXL Mechanics tomorrow.
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 23-Jul-2008 14:40
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Kevin Murphy

Posts: 120
Joined: 16-Jan-2008

Tracy, you shouldn't need to write DXL--at least not yet. Just use the Analysis Wizard.

-------------------------
Kevin Murphy
http://www.baselinesinc.com
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 23-Jul-2008 15:57
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Andrew Tagg

Posts: 151
Joined: 26-Oct-2004

Tracy, I forget who, but one of the guys here posted a dxl include file that contains lots of primitives that will 'drive' excel. So for instance, instead of working out all the OLE code to add text to a cell, there is one call like addTextToCell(string, row, column) or whatever. Just do a forums search on excel, it should appear somewhere.

I use this a lot, but mainly for the production of metrics on an overnight sheduled data trawl.

I have been fighting my case for 4 years in terms of getting engineers to use DOORS natively, sometimes working person by person to illustrate the advantages, sometimes working with the managers to mandate use. So far, all the System Engineers use DOORS exclusively, Verification Engineers are onboard, am still fighting the battle with Software Engineers (who also write SRS specs), since those guys still see writing the spec as something you do once the code is finished and tested. Hmmmmm.

Remeber that if you want to convince the engineering managers, it is little use showing them all the cool doors things, you need to learn to speak their language, Return On Investment, Defect Density, Compliance to Standards and so on. For myself, the killer selling point was the ability to have up to date metrics on things like '%trace from customer contract to System Spec' available on our website updated daily, with tha data coming straight out of DOORS. Once that was available, they were pushing the engineers to update DOORS, so that their next powerpoint chart to upper management showed some progress :-)

-------------------------
Andrew Tagg
Thales Air Systems, Melbourne
Australia.
andrew.tagg@thalesatm.com
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 23-Jul-2008 19:25
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Gordon Woods

Posts: 35
Joined: 2-Mar-2007

Tracy
I would set up one or more views to display the data that you want to export to excel. Use the wizards to get the data.
And then dump the columns and objects directly to excel.
the attached code assumes that the xls file exists and that the worksheet name exists- but its a start.


However, the main problem is that the more you do and the better you do it then the less pressure is on the other guys to do it themselves - it's a catch 22 situation.

We too have pockets of resistance - the only way is to get one or 2 involved and use their enthusiasm to put pressure on the others - once they get over being outside their comfort zone and get used to using DOORS then they will come round ...


-------------

Gordon Woods
BAE Systems (Operations) Limited, Warton, UK
gordon.woods2@baesystems.com
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 23-Jul-2008 22:39
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Uma Unnikrishnan

Posts: 14
Joined: 8-Jul-2008

Using the anlaysis wizard and exporting the results would be the easiest option. An awful waste of all those costly DOORS licenses tho...

Edited: 23-Jul-2008 at 22:40 by Uma Unnikrishnan
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 28-Jul-2008 17:50
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Tracy Monteith

Posts: 33
Joined: 21-Dec-2005

Note I was out a couple of days. And I just received !explicite! guidance to write the DXL. Any of your code posts are very welcome!

Not only that my manager now wants an import-from-excel feature. So a user can make changes to my export and import those changes into DOORs.
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 28-Jul-2008 17:58
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Kevin Murphy

Posts: 120
Joined: 16-Jan-2008

Tracy,

A round-trip import feature won't handle moves or deletes, as well as link deletes without some serious customization and headaches.

You should tell them if they wanted to use Excel they should not have purchased DOORS. I'd be looking for another job if I were you.

-------------------------
Kevin Murphy
http://www.baselinesinc.com
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 28-Jul-2008 18:54
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David Pechacek

Posts: 674
Joined: 5-Dec-2006

You could upgrade to DOORS 9.0 and see about getting web access which gives them direct access without going into DOORS itself.

Email me about a DOORS Import from Excel.

And a link to my Excel Functions.
Excel Functions

-------------------------
David Pechacek
AAI Services Textron
dpechacek@sc-aaicorp.com
David.Pechacek@gmail.com

Edited: 28-Jul-2008 at 18:55 by David Pechacek
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 28-Jul-2008 20:59
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David Pechacek

Posts: 674
Joined: 5-Dec-2006

Check the DXL forum for my Import from Excel.

-------------------------
David Pechacek
AAI Services Textron
dpechacek@sc-aaicorp.com
David.Pechacek@gmail.com
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