Exercise 1.2: (Optional) Using Rational RequisitePro to view and associate use cases with model elements

In this exercise, you open the IBM® Rational® RequisitePro® requirements project and view the PiggyBank use case requirements. This exercise is optional because it relies the installation of Rational Requisite Pro to open a pre-existing requirements project to view the requirements. If you do not have RequisitePro installed, continue to exercise 1.3.

Prerequisite: To complete this exercise, you must have Rational RequisitePro installed.

Rational RequisitePro is a powerful requirements management tool that you can use to organize project requirements, communicate deliverables, and collaborate with project members. RequisitePro uses a database to store and manage a collection of requirements documents. You can use this as a database to query and sort all requirements information for your system and create reports that trace project requirements and measure impact analysis and change management.

The integration of Rational Software Architect with Rational RequisitePro enables you to view and create associations between requirements and model elements. You can open and view existing RequisitePro projects that contain fully documented use cases and requirements information. You can visualize the use cases and relationships and build a use case model by dragging them from an existing RequisitePro project into your UML use case model.

This exercise opens an existing RequisitePro project that contains use cases that describe the PiggyBank online banking system requirements.

Opening the requirements project

To open the requirements project:
  1. Click Window > Open Perspective > Requirement
  2. In the Requirement Explorer view, click the folder icon.
  3. Browse to <<install>>\rsa\eclipse\plugins\com.ibm.xtools.tutorial.piggybank\resources\PiggyBank and click PiggyBank.RQS.
  4. Click Open.

The requirements project is displayed in the Requirement Explorer view. Expand the project to view the requirements information. The project contains use cases that describe the functional areas of the application.

In the Requirements Explorer view, your PiggyBank requirements project should similar to the following figure.

The Requirements Explorer view.

To view the associated requirements document, expand Use Cases and double-click a use case document. The requirements documents contain all the background information that is associated with the use cases.

Creating a functional area

To create the use case diagram, you must first identify the functional area. Because all use cases are related to banking activities, the functional area is called Account Operations.

To create a functional area:
  1. In the Model Explorer view, expand Use Case Model, expand «ModelLibrary» Use-Case Building Blocks, and drag the ${functional.area} package into the root level of the use case model.
  2. Right-click ${functional.area}; then click Find/Replace.
  3. In the Find what field, type ${functional.area} and click Replace.
  4. In the Replace with field, type Account Operations and click OK.

You now have a functional area. The functional area represents the most basic building block of the use case model. You can now populate the functional area with use cases.

Creating associations between use cases and model elements

After you identify the functional area, you can import the use cases and begin to build the use case model.

To create associations between requirements and model elements:
  1. In the Model Explorer view, expand Account Operations and double-click Account Operations Use Cases.
  2. In the diagram editor; right-click the note then click Delete from diagram.
  3. In the Requirement Explorer view, expand the Use Cases folder and drag the UC1 Display Balance, UC2 Transfer money, and UC3 Cash check use cases to the diagram editor.
  4. In the diagram editor, arrange the use cases vertically in the center of the diagram.

(Optional) Documenting the use cases

The use case model template contains an overview package called «perspective» Overviews that provides additional documentation about the model. Although this step is optional and does not impact the model, you should organize and document the actors and use cases in the PiggyBank online banking system.

To document the use cases:
  1. In the Model Explorer view, expand «perspective» Overviews, right-click Context Diagram; then click Refactor > Rename.
  2. To rename the diagram, type Architecturally Significant Use Cases and press Enter. This diagram will contain a list of all main use cases in the project.
  3. Double-click Architecturally Significant Use Cases.
  4. In the Model Explorer view, expand the Account Operations folder and drag the Display Balance, Transfer money, and Cash check use case elements into the diagram editor.
  5. Arrange the use cases vertically in the center of the diagram, as you did for the use case diagram in the previous step.

You have increased the readability of this use case model by documenting the project’s significant use cases. You can add a title to the diagram by using the text tool. Your project should now look similar to the following figure:

The model Explorer showing the current PiggyBank model hierarchy.

Because this model contains only one functional area, you can remove the «ModelLibrary» Use-Case Building Blocks package from your project. To delete the package, right-click it, then click Delete from Model.

To continue, proceed to Exercise 1.4: Identifying actors.

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