Associations between requirements and model elements

With the Rational® RequisitePro® integration, you can enhance Rational Software Architect models by associating model elements and RequisitePro requirements.

With this integration, you can extend your requirements and model elements with the following capabilities:

Direct and indirect associations

This integration supports two types of associations between requirements and model elements:

A direct association links a model element and a requirement. This link associates the model element and requirement and synchronizes both artifacts so that you can manage them as a single, conceptual item. By default, the integration directly associates use-case model elements and use-case requirements. This creates a one-to-one, exclusive relationship between the use-case artifacts.

An indirect association links model elements and requirements through proxy requirements and traceability. By default, the integration generates a proxy requirement for any model element that is not a use case, such as a class. The proxy requirement represents the model element within RequisitePro. The integration also creates traceability from the proxy to the requirement that you selected for the association. Indirect associations are particularly powerful for creating many-to-many relationships with traceability between multiple requirements and a single proxy or between multiple proxies and a single requirement.

For more information on direct and indirect associations, see the related concept topics listed later in this topic. The default linking behavior described previously is suitable for typical use of the integration; however, you can customize the linking behavior for specific model element and requirement types in the project properties settings.

Requirement documents

You can use Microsoft® Word documents within RequisitePro to develop an extensive textual definition of your requirements. This is particularly helpful for elaborating associated use cases with descriptions, flows of events, special requirements, and conditions. You can navigate directly to requirement documents from within Software Architect.

Package associations

In addition to associations between requirements and model elements, you can also associate a requirement with a Software Architect package. This is helpful for relating groups of model elements with a specific requirement.

Related concepts
Requirement association workflows
Requirement concepts and artifacts
Requirement traceability
Direct associations
Indirect associations

Related tasks
Viewing and modifying requirements
Creating indirect associations between requirements and model elements
Creating direct associations between requirements and model elements

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