Introduction

One of the roles of a business analyst is to define and model business processes. These processes are the result of a set of requirements that express the overall goals and objectives of the business. The processes and associated requirements captured in a WebSphere Business Modeler (hereafter called Modeler) process model and the underlying business requirements expressed in Rational RequisitePro (hereafter called RequisitePro) need to be reported to business stakeholders, so that they can review the business process model and confirm that it meets the stated business goals and objectives. To be able to do this, the business analyst needs to summarize the mapping between the requirements and the process and provide that information in a way that is easily consumed by the business stakeholders.

The IBM Rational RequisitePro Integration Plug-in for WebSphere Business Modeler enables business analysts to link Modeler elements to the RequisitePro requirements that they fulfill. (See Resources for more information on the Integration plug-in.) Modeler and RequisitePro each provide reporting components for information held in their respective tools that can assist in compiling a consolidated report. However, currently these reporting components don't access the links created by the Integration Plug-in, which means that creating a consolidated report using these technologies is a manual process.

The IBM Rational RequisitePro Linked Requirements Report Plug-in for WebSphere Business Modeler (hereafter called the Linked Requirements Report Plug-in), provided for download with this article, enables you to create consolidated reports, using the structures created by the Integration plug-in, that show the links between a business process, its activities, and the associated RequisitePro requirements. In this article, you'll learn how to install the Report Plug-in and use it to generate reports. We provide a sample template and project and walk you through generating a sample report, and show you how you can generate consolidated reports using your own report templates.

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Before you begin

Before using the Linked Requirements Report Plug-in, make sure that the following software is downloaded and successfully installed on your machine:

• IBM WebSphere Business Modeler V6.1.2.
• IBM Rational RequisitePro V7.0.1
• IBM Rational RequisitePro Integration Plug-in for WebSphere Business Modeler

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Download and install the plug-in

To download the Linked Requirements Report plug-in, do the following:

1. Download the plug-in ZIP file from the Downloads section.
2. Unzip the plug-in ZIP file to a temporary directory.

To install the plug-in, do the following:

1. Ensure you have installed all prerequisites as described above.
2. The plug-in is installed as a software update. In Modeler, select Help => Software Updates => Find and Install.
3. Choose Select new features to install and click Next.
4. Select New Local Site and choose the directory on the local file system into which you extracted the ZIP file, then click Finish.
5. Select the com.ibm.sal.lrr feature for installation, and click Next.
6. Review and accept the terms of the license and click Next.
7. Select the com.ibm.sal.lrr feature and choose where to install the feature, then click Finish.
8. Select Install.
9. Restart Modeler.

You have now completed installation of the plug-in. To verify that the plug-in has been installed in Modeler, select Help => Software Updates => Manage Configuration. Expand the location where you installed the plug-in, and check that the com.ibm.sal.lrr feature is listed.

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Import the sample template and projects

The sample materials provided with this article include a Modeler project, which contains a sample report template, and a sample RequisitePro project. To import the sample projects, complete the following steps:

1. Download the SampleMaterials.zip file from the Downloads section and extract its contents to your local file system.
2. Open WebSphere Business Modeler V6.1.2 to the Business Modeling perspective.
3. Import the project LRRWBMSampleProject.mar from the location to which you extracted the zip file.
4. Switch to the Requirements perspective.
5. In the Requirements Explorer, click the Open a Rational RequisitePro project icon, and select LRRRequisiteProSampleProject.rqs from the location to which you extracted it.
6. Select Unknown as the user name in the pop-up dialog.

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Examine the sample projects

To view the linked requirement information contained in the sample projects, open the Requirements perspective, as shown in Figure 1.

If you expand LRRWBMSampleProject in the Project tree, you'll see that it contains a single process called Create a Software Solution. This process is linked to a Business Use Case (BUC) requirement in the RequisitePro project LRRRequisiteProSampleProject. These links are established using the RequisitePro Integration Plug-in for Modeler. The business process consists of a number of activities, some of which are also linked to requirements in the RequisitePro project.

To examine the process structure, open the process model. You should see a diagram similar to Figure 2. See a larger version of Figure 2.

To view information on particular activities in the process, switch to the Business Modeling perspective, then click the Package and Publish build activity in the Create a Software Solution process. You should see the Attributes view, as shown in Figure 3. See a larger version of Figure 3.

As you can see, the activity contains some inputs, outputs, roles and classifiers. As you'll see later, this activity information is pulled into the sample report.

The activity is linked to a BusinessTask requirement in the RequisitePro project. To view information about this requirement, switch to the Requirements perspective and select Business Tasks => TASK3 Package and Publish build, as shown in Figure 4.

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Generate a sample report

A sample linked requirements report template is provided in LRRWBMSampleProject. Using this template, you can generate a report to display information about the Modeler process and the linked requirements from the RequisitePro project. The data fields contained in the sample template are available from the RequisitePro data source.

The plug-in uses Modeler reporting framework to generate reports. To generate a sample report, do the following:

1. In the Project tree, right-click the sample report template in the LRRWBMSampleProject , and select Generate or Generate and Export.
2. Select Create a Software Solution in the LRRWBMSampleProject as the report target, and click Finish.

The report opens in the preview dialog or is saved to the local file system depending on the options you chose.

The information contained in the generated report is based on the data fields that were populated into the Sample Linked Requirements Report Template.

The generated report, shown in Figure 5, contains information about the process, its activities, and the requirements they're linked to. You can see information about the Package and Publish build activity, such as its associated role, classifiers, inputs and outputs. This information was pulled in from the Modeler LRRWBMSampleProject. You can see that the activity is linked to a requirement. Information about the linked requirement was extracted from the RequisitePro LRRRequisiteProSampleProject. See Information you can include in your report in this article for more information about the fields that are available.

Open up the sample template and explore the Activities in the process page to see how this part of the report is laid out. For more information about how to create and use report templates, see the WebSphere Business Modeler information center.

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Create your own report template and generate a report

The plug-in leverages the reporting infrastructure provided by Modeler. This enables you to create your own report templates, allowing you to include information applicable to your specific reporting needs, and format this information in a manner consistent with your requirements and standards.

To create a new report template using the data source provided by the plug-in, complete the following steps:

1. From the Project Tree, open the project you want to create the template in.
2. Right-click Reports and select New => Report Template.
3. Enter a name and description for the new report template and click Next.
4. In the Data Source dialog, expand RequisiteProand select RequisitePro requirement properties data source, then click Next.
5. Select an existing style master for your report or choose No Report Style Master, then click Finish.
6. Use the template editor to build your report template. You may include information from the data source by expanding the elements in the Data Fields section of the Fields view and dragging them to the report template. See Data fields for more information about the fields.
7. Save the report template.
8. Use the method described in View the process and its linked requirements to generate a report using your template.

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Information you can include in your report

The Linked Requirements Report Plug-in adds the following functionality to Modeler:

• A data source, usable by the Modeler reporting framework, that provides information about the selected process and its requirements.
• A project archive for import into your Modeler workspace, containing report templates with examples using the information provided by the data source.

In this section, we'll look at the information provided by the data source, which is provided in data fields that can be included in the template.

Process data field

The Process data field is the top-level data field in the tree. The data source must be targeted at a particular process when generating a report, so this field will contain information about the selected process. If you expand the Process data field in the Fields View, you'll see a hierarchy like that shown below.

Child field Description activity Data fields representing activities in the process model. See the description of the activity data field. Business Item Data fields representing business items used by the process. See the description of the business item data field. Description The description of the process as seen in the Modeler Attributes view. Diagram A diagram of the process. To use this in your template, select the Diagram/Pages/ImageSrc child element. Input Data fields representing the inputs to the process. See the description of the input/output data fields. Name The name of the process as seen in Modeler. Output Data fields representing the outputs from the process. See the description of the input/output data fields. requirement Data fields representing the RequisitePro requirements linked to the process model. See the description of the requirement data field.

Activity data field

The activity data field contains information about a specific activity in the process. If you expand Process => activity in the Fields View, you'll see a hierarchy like that shown below.

Child field Description Classifier Data fields representing the names of classifiers applied to the activity. Description The description of the activity as seen in the Modeler Attributes view. Input Data fields representing the inputs to the activity. See the description of the input/output data fields. Name The name of the activity as seen in Modeler. Output Data fields representing the outputs from the activity. See the description of the input/output data fields. requirement Data fields representing the RequisitePro requirements linked to the activity. See the description of the requirement data field. Role Data fields representing the names of roles applied to the activity. Type The type of the activity, for example TASK or SUBPROCESS.

Business Item data field

The Business Item data field contains information about a business item referenced by the process or by another business item. If you expand Process => Business Item in the Fields View, you'll see a hierarchy like that shown below.

Child field Description Attribute Data fields representing the attributes of the business item, their name, description and type. Business Item Data fields representing the business items used by this business item as attributes. Note that these will not be present if already present "higher" in the business item tree. businessItemsIn Data fields representing activities that use this business item as an input business item businessItemsOut Data fields representing activities that use this business item as an output business item Description The description of the business item as seen in the Modeler Attributes view. Name The name of the business item as seen in Modeler.

Input and Output data fields

The Input and Output data fields contain information about the inputs and outputs to the process. If you expand Process => Input or Process => Output in the Fields View, you'll see a hierarchy like that shown below.

Child field Description Name The name of the input/output as seen in Modeler. Type The type of the input/output as seen in Modeler. This is usually the name of a Business Item.

Requirement data field

The requirement data field contains information about a Requisite Pro requirement. If you expand Process => requirement in the Fields View, you'll see a hierarchy like that shown below.

Child field Description Attribute Data fields representing the attributes of the requirement, with name and value, such as Priority and High. Location The storage location of the requirement, such as Database or the name of a Word document. Name The name of the requirement. package The package the requirement is stored in within the RequisitePro hierarchy. relationship If this requirement has a parent requirement in the Fields View, this attribute has a value of traced from or traced to, depending on whether the parent traces from or to this requirement. Note: If the requirement has no parent requirement, this field is not populated. requirement Requirements traced from or to this requirement, as described above. tag The requirement's tag, such as BUC1. text The requirement's multi-line text field. Type The type of the requirement, such as BUC: Business Use Case.

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Troubleshooting

This section describes some possible problem scenarios and describes how you can correct them.

1. Modeler crashes while you're editing a report template.

   This is a known problem with the Modeler template editor. We recommend you save your template frequently while editing to minimize the impact of this problem on your work.

2. Report generation fails silently after adding a group to the template.

   A common cause of this problem is that null values were specified for the group's Grouped By Field and Data Field Path attributes.

3. A .docx report generated from a template fails to open, but a .pdf version generated from the same template opens successfully.

   Insufficient space between elements in the report template can sometimes cause errors in the generated .docx file. Check to make sure that elements are adequately spaced if generating .docx reports.

Support and feedback

The Report Plug-in described in this article was developed as an Agile project. The plug-in is provided strictly on an as-is basis. There is no warranty or further service implied or committed and any supplied sample code is not supported via IBM product service channels. However, we'd really appreciated your feedback about the plug-in. Please refer to the README included in the download for more information.

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Summary

In this article, you learned about the IBM Rational RequisitePro Linked Requirements Report Plug-in for WebSphere Business Modeler. You learned how to install and use the plug-in to generate a sample report and create your own report templates. Using this plug-in will greatly reduce the time you spend performing manual report consolidation by enabling you to create automated reports and reuse the templates you have created.

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Downloads

Information about download methods

Resources

• IBM Rational RequisitePro integration for IBM WebSphere Business Modeler: A best practices guide (developerWorks 2007): This guide provides recommended approaches and best practices for using the Rational RequisitePro integration for WebSphere Business Modeler.
  
  
• Installing the Rational RequisitePro integration: This topic in the WebSphere Business Modeler Information Center walks you through installing the integration plug-ins.
  
  
• developerWorks BPM zone: Get the latest technical resources for IBM BPM solutions, including downloads, demos, articles, tutorials, events, webcasts, and more.
  
  
• WebSphere Business Modeler information center: Get complete product documentation for WebSphere Business Modeler.
  
  
• developerWorks Rational zone: Get the latest technical resources for IBM Rational solutions, including downloads, demos, articles, tutorials, events, webcasts, and more.
  
  

About the authors

Nick Maynard works as an Agile software developer in the IBM Software Group Scenario Analysis Lab in Hursley, where he develops integration components for IBM Software Group products. He also works on a number of volunteer projects within IBM. He joined IBM UK as a graduate in 2003, and has worked in areas including scenario testing and development. He specializes in Agile development, product integration, Linux, and business integration technologies. You can reach Nick at nick.maynard@uk.ibm.com.

Roshan Nichani is an Agile software developer in the Scenario Analysis Lab at IBM Hursley, developing integration components for IBM Software Group products. He gained the PMP certification in 2004, and re-certified in 2007. Since joining IBM in 2000, he has worked in a number of areas, including working as a test team leader in the SAN Volume Controller development organization and as a software developer in the IBM Hursley Java Technology Center. You can reach Roshan at nichanir@uk.ibm.com.

JT Toro works as an IT Specialist in IBM Software Group, where she develops systems that help realize business scenarios that require complex software integration. She has an extensive background developing software solutions to business problems in the financial services, health care and telecommunications industries. You can reach JT at jtoro@uk.ibm.com.

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Table of contents

• Introduction
• Before you begin
• Download and install the plug-in
• Import the sample template and projects
• Examine the sample projects
• Generate a sample report
• Create your own report template and generate a report
• Information you can include in your report
• Troubleshooting
• Summary
• Downloads
• Resources
• About the authors
• Comments

Next steps from IBM

• Try: Rational RequisitePro
• Demo: Creating requirements with Rational RequisitePro
• Webcast: Modernization approaches to reduce the total cost for multi-platform enterprise applications
• Briefing: Jazz and Rational Team Concert
• Buy: Rational RequisitePro

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