From now until the end of 2013, registering on IBM’s JazzHub allows free hosting of source code for public and private projects.
This was just announced so I haven’t been able to dive in head first on this, but JazzHub seems to be an implementation of Rational Team Concert in the cloud that has been set up to import code from github, who also allows free project hosting for open source projects.
There is a small catch here. Your private projects are hosted at no cost to you until January 2015, where fees start to apply. At that time you can either migrate your projects elsewhere, convert them to open source, or decide to pay.
While we here at Baselines Incorporated have always been experts in requirements management, we learned Rational Team Concert when we saw that Jazz was the future platform for the Rational DOORS brand. While Rational Requirements Composer/DOORS Next Generation are not currently at feature parity with DOORS Classic, going towards Jazz allows for a much better backend architecture than the current DOORS Classic settings, which will eventually allow for things like true version control of requirements! (This will be the killer feature that solidifies DOORS Next Gen’s place in the market as the new requirements leader. You heard it here first.)
Git/Github is great for version control. Aside from a bit of a learning curve because of a new paradigm of source code control, I don’t personally have many complaints about it. It’s easy to use when you know how to use it. The simultaneous problem and benefit with git in my opinion is that other than the command line, there’s no standard client to use.
RTC allows use of a command line, explorer shell extensions in Windows, Visual Studio, and Eclipse. Eclipse has a fully configured RTC download and RTC is a plug-in on the Visual Studio side. There are git plugins for Eclipse too (I’m not sure about VS). But RTC was built with Eclipse in mind and so there is just one RTC plug-in for Eclipse.
In any case, if you’ve been wanting to try out RTC for some application ideas you’ve had, there’s really not a lot of reason not to try JazzHub right now.
Feel free to contact us for more information regarding DOORS, DOORS Next Generation, Rational Team Concert and Rational Quality Manager.
What a horrible title for this technote. The “Table” caption comes in as a HEADING, not a caption. And this problem only exists in exports from DOORS that were brought in from MS Word and that is also not mentioned. The word DOORS isn’t even in the title, which tells me that most RPE customers are using DOORS.
While the information in the technote is valuable, I still can find no actual reason any long time user of DOORS would want invisible table headers to have a heading of “Table” on tables exported to DOORS from Word documents. Unless every DOORS table will always have this heading regardless of where it is created, this “feature” needs to be removed in the next release.
Friday was not a fun day for me. I had to troubleshoot a bizarre issue with Rational Publishing Engine. Anyone who has worked with RPE knows that while it’s a very good tool, troubleshooting document errors is a long process that can absolutely test every ounce of patience you have.
The issue in this particular case was that in certain modules, an extra heading would be added to a table. This did not happen in every module, which seems to point to not being an issue with the RPE template (a .dta file) but rather with the data of the table itself. The problem was that the tables appeared to be identical!
Reproducing The Problem
I’ve been able to replicate the problem in Word 2010, DOORS 9.3.0.7 and DOORS 9.4, and RPE 1.1.2.2. Here’s what to do.
Create a new Word Document. Put a table in it. Here’s what I did. You can click the number next to each photo for a fullsize view.
Export from Word to DOORS
]1 Initial Word Document with Tables]2 Exporting to DOORS]3 New DOORS Module based on Word Document
Okay, everything so far looks good. Let’s export with RPE. I’m going to use the doorsData.dta file that comes with RPE just for demonstration purposes.
The red arrow shows an erroneous heading! What’s going on here? I didn’t put that there. Those italicized Table captions comes after each table, and that’s controlled by the .dta file.
Troubleshooting The Problem
I could write lots of paragraphs here boring you with everything I tried. I’ll tell you this to speed things up: I tried multiple .dta files and multiple DOORS modules and the results appeared consistent between modules. What I mean is, one module would consistently output table headings and one module would consistently not output table headings, regardless of the .dta file used to export. Strange indeed. I’d look at random table cells in each table and they all looked identical.
I know what might work! Inserting a DOORS Table into a module that was behaving like this. So that’s next.
Ok, so it’s not a module-by-module basis, it’s a table-by-table basis on which this error occurs! I’m stumped. The only thing I know for sure here is that it is not a .dta problem. It appears that tables captured from Word documents behave this way, while tables created in DOORS don’t.
I talk this problem over with a colleague and she tells me that there are other modules that are exhibiting this behavior. She did a little research and ultimately determined the problem.
DOORS Tables (Suck)
If you are a religious person, and you use DOORS, you must believe that DOORS Tables are a tool of the devil. When I train people in DOORS, I explain that having tables in modules is not just a DOORS issue, it’s a requirements management issue. Tables can make it easy to digest information, but they can also obscufate requirements. Is each cell a requirement? Each row? A combination of rows? The entire table? Since the purpose of requirements management is to make requirements clearer, tables go against the very nature of effective requirements.
Over a decade ago, Telelogic had a problem. DOORS did not support tables. Their clients were demanding table support, so some designer came up with the idea to “hack” DOORS objects and make tables consist of these hacked DOORS objects. Each DOORS table has an “invisible” table header object, and each row has an invisible row object. Why did I put the first “invisible” in quotes? Well, because you actually can see these invisible DOORS table header objects, under the correct circumstances. How?
Click View->Show->Table Cells. It’ll likely be checked when you see it in the menu. Clicking it will uncheck this option.
So now that we can see these table headers, I can now get to the properties of the invisible table headers. TBLISSUE-6 represents the table where the problem is showing up. I right-click the object and choose Properties and am presented with this!
This table header object has an Object Heading of Table! Where did it come from? The Microsoft Word export process now sets the Object Heading of each invisible DOORS Table Header object as “Table”, thus putting a bug into every single RPE template that deals with DOORS data!
The only way I can think of to fix this, for sure, 100% of the time, without affecting data in any of your modules is to remove this Object Heading from each DOORS table exported from Word. What a pain! But let’s do that and see what happens.
I wasted almost an entire work day trying to troubleshoot and solve this issue. I’m not very happy about this, and am posting here in order to help others who may encounter the same issue. This fix was not at all obvious and even the problem occurs sporadically.
I read the release notes for each DOORS release I implement and I either completely missed this change to DOORS or more likely, this change was not documented. It’s also angering, because as a user, if I want to put Object Headings on my invisible Table Headers then I will do so. Also, the latest RPE sample files do not reflect this change, as demonstrated, so in my opinion, the DOORS developers introduced a bug into RPE!
Even more frustrating is that I’ve entered PMRs and RFEs for DOORS behavior that I believe are outright bugs and they get ignored outright or I have to justify changing them because of how much they cost my clients. Yet stuff like this happens with no warning and my clients eat the cost of me and others trying to figure out what’s happened here.
Friday I announced on this site that Baselines Incorporated is now an authorized reseller of IBM Rational Software. I stated that I would ensure that the content of this site along with my opinions would not be affected by us selling IBM Rational DOORS and Rational Publishing Engine and the like. The bad news is that this bug exists at all, but the good news, for me anyway, is that I got to prove that I am a man of my word.
I sincerely hope this article helps people save some time in the future and that IBM fixes this issue in a soon-to-be-released future release. In the mean time, a PMR/SR has been entered and I am engaging my IBM representatives about this horrible change.
I’m excited to announce that Baselines Incorporated now has the ability to sell IBM Rational software, including IBM Rational DOORS, IBM Rational Team Concert, IBM Rational Rhapsody, and IBM Rational Publishing Engine, IBM Rational Quality Manager, to name a few. This has been a few months in the making and I want to thank everyone involved for helping to make this happen.
I will still give my same opinions and thoughts on where IBM should go with their software and hopefully my status as a business partner and reseller will go towards my thoughts being heard and implemented.
This change won’t affect the content of this site. The exciting part is that if Baselines has an existing relationship with your company, then this is an extra service we can offer, as you can purchase IBM Rational DOORS from us. We can generate quotes and there are different payment and financing options that can be chosen as well.
Baselines Incorporated, The Requirements Management Experts, are experts in IBM Rational DOORS, DOORS DXL scripting, Rational Publishing Engine and Rational Team Concert. We make it our business to understand our clients’ requirements management, change management process and workflow, and validation and verification needs and fulfill their expectations. If it involves requirements, it involves our knowledge.
If you have any questions about any of our services, don’t hesitate to contact us!
I received the following email from Nancy Rundlet at IBM.
IBM is now offering both Rhapsody Enlightenment and DOORS Enlightenment every Friday, alternating between the two products. NOTICE that there are 3 new DOORS Enlightenment topics that have been added in November and December as well as links to the recordings for the events that have recently been delivered. Please scan the list below for those topics of interest and when you click on the link, you will see an abstract for each of the topics.
Please spread the word to others who may be interested.
Rhapsody Enlightenment Series
6/22 12-1 ET Validating the consistency & completeness of your requirements with modeling Manohar Rao https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/785884730
7/13 12-1 ET Reverse Engineering existing code into Rhapsody Chris Carson https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/890348450
7/27 12-1 ET Systems Engineering: Importing Requirements from DOORS to Rhapsody Justin Dyer https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/933085170
8/10 12-1 ET Safety Critical Software Development with Rhapsody Bruce Douglass https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/208807610
8/24 12-1 ET Systems Engineering: Trade Study Analysis Gavin Arthurs https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/575771018
9/14 12-1 ET DDS Software Development with Rhapsody Dan Poirot https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/289500490
9/28 12-1 ET Systems Engineering: Automating Harmony SE Processes with the SE Toolkit Andy Lapping https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/653823042
10/12 12-1 ET How to Organize Your Model for Teaming, Reuse, Configuration Management Ed Mayer https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/724120402
10/26 12-1 ET Systems Engineering: Creating Combined Simulations with Rhapsody and The Mathworks Simulink Ron Felice https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/812217530
11/9 12-1 ET Test Driven Development with Rhapsody TestConductor Jeff Cohen https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/801734122
12/14 12-1 ET Systems Engineering: Creating Interface Specifications with DOORS and Rhapsody Ed Mayer https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/974353882
DOORS Enlightenment Series
Webcast series 1st Friday (Introductory) and 3rd (Advanced) each month 12:00 Noon ET for approximately 1 hour
6/29/12 DOORS Next Generation Update (every 2 – 3 months) Richard Watson https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/348355346
7/6/12 Importing with ease Jim Marsh https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/423068266
7/20/12 Common Metrics Collection in DOORS George Siampos https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/996061362
8/3/12 Extending DOORS with DOORS Web Access Jim Hays https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/856848242
8/17/12 Optimizing the Performance of DOORS Web Access Jim Marsh https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/838124410
9/7/12 DOORS and Testing — The options available Jim Hays https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/123105626
9/21/12 Requirements Management and Product Line Engineering Michelle Specht https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/305250674
10/5/12 Collaborating with DOORS Discussions Melissa Robinson https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/890606066
10/19/12 Extending DOORS – Introduction to DXL (DOORS eXtension Language) Don Cunningham https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/370491698
11/2/12 Basic Tips and Tricks of Using DOORS Rick Learn https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/240379874
11/16/12 Managing Change Proposals in DOORS Steve Grossman https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/211722578
11/30/12 The Latest Update on DOORS Next Generation Richard Watson https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/609802306
12/7/12 Extending DOORS to Model Based Systems Engineering Barclay Brown https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/139105194
Many large organizations want to adopt agile development methodologies as a means of delivering software to customers and internal stakeholders more quickly and efficiently in “bite-sized” increments. However large projects can pose significant challenges to agility. IBM Software Group, with almost 30,000 engineers in 84 locations, started its agile transformation in 2006. While this journey continues today, extensive improvements in quality, time-to-market, and customer satisfaction show that the rewards of agile adoption far outweigh the obstacles. IBM also learned that a haphazard implementation of agile may result in more frequent development “turns”. but can also fail to deliver true business benefits.
It has taken me over a week to fully recover from the conference. I usually bounce back much quicker but I had a slew of work waiting for me once IBM Innovate 2012 ended.
I wanted to post my thoughts on the conference because there doesn’t seem to be as much information about the event itself from attendees. Are you an Apple Developer? There are plenty of Google searches that will lead you to what the WWDC is like. Into videogames? You know what to expect from E3. Go to Innovate? Well, good luck.
And that is where I am coming from. In my past life I went to E3 every year. I’ve been to a single MacWorld event. And I already mentioned WWDC. Since WWDC, E3, and Innovate are all so close to each other time wise, when I’m at Innovate I feel like I’m going to the least fun of the three conferences.
I’ve gone to the IBM Rational conference every year since 2009, and I went to just one Telelogic conference in 2007. So while I’m not exactly a veteran, I’m not a newbie either, and I’ve seen enough to compare them to each other and contrast to Telelogic’s conference.
I’m just going to list the scripts and their functionality.
Rules have changed this year: Scripts can be up to 2000 lines long.
Export Heirarchy to HTML
Patrick Roach
Apparently based on the included DOORS HTML Exporter. Lets you selected which modules to export (including linked modules).
It’s a standard exporter but no Stylesheet information is used to make the HTML pop. I actually started work on something similar a few years ago, but felt that RPE made it obsolete.
Advanced Table Properties
Steve
Very impressive. Amazingly impressive. Can merge cells, easily set border option. Can select diagonally. Can Merge Right and Merge Left. Can split cells. Insert Row button. Incert Column button (left and right. Can remove rich text, show/hide link arrow, jump tables.
If he adds sort capabilities, which is not trivial, DOORS tables just may be usable. No table split capability either, which is fine.
I hope the author submits this to our DXL Repository (hint, hint).
Folder Hierarchy Picklist Wrapper (my name for it)
Alex Ivanov
Helps to run DXL on multiple modules easily. Can choose a folder and then it’ll pick up all modules in a folder, even allowing to optionally match a search term (e.g., “Software”) and then runs any DXL you want across modules in the database.
Baseline Manager
Don
A customer wanted to view baselines by “1”, not “1.0”. And search by milestone description (which is a pre-defined list).
The script will search out baselines matching criteria that has been input. Can also create a baseline with this tool. Also allows signatures. With the signature, it will allow a role selection, and also a label (Rejected/Accepted). If Rejected, a comment is required.
DOORS to RTC Bridge
Author did not give his name, but he sounded Scottish
Open-source VB.Net project. ALlows requirements in DOORS to be linked to work items in RTC using OSLC.
Uses Madgex OAuth Library
Requires MS .NET Framework 4
There are instructions.
This is not a DXL script.
There is a girl snoring.
ANd the winner is…
Advanced Table Properties
My Suggestions for Next Year
OK, everyone. THe first rule of making a presentation is to introduce yourself. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, because even though I think everyone should know exactly who I am, the fact is they don’t. So I tell them who I am when I get in front of them. Simple.
Next year apparently is not going to be DXL specific. It’s going to be general DOORS scripting, so OSLC, VB, and other languages will be allowed.
This year, allowing 2000 lines, a revelation occurred: Why haven’t they done this before? It was absolutely stupid to limit the competition to 75 lines. Talk about limiting potential! I say lift the limit completely! Imagine some of the scripts that would be out there today if they didn’t have this absolutely ridiculous limitation. You could have had multiple competitions, one with the 75-line limit, and another without.
And on the same note, give better prizes. An Amazon gift certificate is nice, but make it like $500 or $1000. Or free admission next year (which I think is what they used to give) or something.
Also, send out notification. Apparently the DXL competition notification went out really late this year. That was acknowledged. But here I am, running a Web site that has a DXL Repository and I did not get any such notification at all.
