Requirements Table - Add Rationale

[keenwpatrick@gmail.com]

Good afternoon,

Is it possible to add a column to a requirements table that includes the rationale for the requirement? I have the rationale anchored to the specific requirement and would like to include it such that I have a deliverable will full traceability from top-level requirement through verification and validation stage.

Thank you in advance!

Best wishes,

Patrick

[ieva.n]

Hello,
Yes, you can add a rationale. Create a Custom Column (do not forget to turn on the Expert mode in Query dialog), go to Metachain, click Add, in first column leave Requirement, in second choose _commentOfAnnotatedElement, and at the bottom of Metachain Navigation set "Results Filter by Type" field to "Rationale". Do not forget to name the column and submit the changes by clicking OK.

Sincerely,
No Magic, Inc. Customer Support

[keenwpatrick@gmail.com]

Thank you so much! That worked perfectly.

Best,

Patrick

[keenwpatrick@gmail.com]

Hello,

Is it possible to set up the rationale column such that the entirety of the rationale element text shows up? When generating a report (HTML format) the rationale only extends for the first few words and the rationale cannot be read without opening the model. Thank you!

[tim.woodbury@emergentspace.com]

I came across this thread while trying to add a custom column and found that it partly described what I wanted. I found an answer to the previous question in another thread and I'm posting here to close the loop in case others have the same problem.

If you simply want the complete text element of the "Rationale" element to be visible, I found the following approach to be simpler:
1. In the Metachain Navigation, select a "Type" of "String" at the top
2. Add the Requirement and _commentOfAnnotatedElement fields as before
3. Add a second line underneath with a Metaclass of "Comment" and a Property of "Body"

The custom column should display the full Body text of the Rationale element.

Example:

metachain.png

I found some useful information in this thread: creating-a-derived-property-in-a-table-t7384.html

[Gengis]

I found very simple and disappoinment the built-in properties that the (stereotype) Requirements has. It is like a toy or simple test more than a serios useful one.
After many hours of searching and study, when I was almost a noobie on MD, I solved this issue creating a new Stereotype for my project requirements.
The steps were more or less these:
1. In contaiment tree, Create a new package named "z.Stereotypes"
2. Create a UML profile diagram, you need to use the upper menu, right click doesn't give you this option.
3. From the palet menu drag and drop a "stereotype", name it as "require..." and chose "Requirement".
4. Create a new stereotype with a new name, for example "RequirementsUseful" and create a generalization relation, so the new defined one heritage from the built-in Requirement one.
5. Click the black plus mini icon on the upper right corner of the new stereotype and add all the attributes than you need in your requirements, for example: rationale, priority, status, risk, comment, author, etc, etc. Assign proper types to them (string, integer, real, ENUM, etc).
6. If you are noobie, Enums need to be created separately before being assigned to properties.The easiest way is to right click in the package/folder of the stereotype and select Create Element->Enumeration. Rename the enumeration at your convenience. Then right click this and Create Element in a similar way under it but selecting "Enum. literal" (if you select property or other it is not going to work). Once finished to add all needed literals and all needed enums you are able to type your New Requirement-Useful attributes with the corresponding enums you just defined.
7. Now, you are able to Refractor the requirements with the right click menu to the new Stereotype. And then, you are able to include the new data for all of them. Also you are able to use all this information on a table and whereever you need.

I hope this help!

[p_kn]

I found an answer to the previous question in another thread and I'm posting here to close the loop in case others have the same problem.

Thank You very much, very helpful so far.
But, is it possible to make this column editable and synchronizable to Excel? Normale I can even paste multiline Text and fill the properties of other columns. But that doesn't work with this rationale column, not even make a new rationale inside the column is possible.

[ryan.hill@gtri.gatech.edu]

I was working on this problem recently and found this solution to get the text of comments (i.e., "body" value) stereotyped with "Rationale".

Mr. Woodberry's answer will return all comments, including what I would call "top level" documentation. If you only want comments that are stereotyped, you can change his step 3 by setting Metaclass to whatever stereotype you are looking for. In my case, I was looking for only "Rationale" comments and that got me exactly what I was looking for.