Prepare Jira for easeRequirements Cloud

Overview

Some preparation is needed to successfully use the app. We recommend reviewing the following sections and taking any necessary actions to ensure a smooth start.

Your Jira system administrator can work with you to adapt the Jira configuration. If Jira is shared with other projects, you should align the necessary changes with them. We recommend starting small and simple. Future extensions are much easier than complex adaptation at a later time.

Issue Types

easeRequirements Cloud reuses the issues types defined in Jira. We suggest you create the following types:

Folder

To allow you the most flexibility, the Cloud edition does not provide a built-in type for folders. You should create a type to organize requirements into hierarchical structures. Make sure to configure a folder issue type for your requirements tree.
We do not recommend using Jira Epic issue type for folders as they are used in the Jira agile process and could conflict with your hierarchy in easeRequirements.

Customer Requirement

It is often useful to distinguish between requirements from external sources (e.g. the customer's user stories) and internal sources (e.g. the detailed specifications derived from customer requirements).

Functional Requirement

These are internal system and component specifications that are derived from customer stories.

Non-Functional Requirement

These are specifications that are not directly related to customer stories.

Task

It can be useful to break down requirements into detailed implementation tasks for development teams.

Test Case

It is often valuable to have explicit test cases corresponding to the requirements, depending on the testing strategy and the desired granularity of test cases.

The suggested issue types and names are not required by easeRequirements Cloud. Depending on your methodology you can have other issue types or names.

Workflows

Any workflow you design for your issue types can be used within the app. Think about your approval and acceptance process as you are defining one or more flows for different requirement types. Start with simple steps your teams can follow easily.

Fields

The app uses a number of Jira fields to display the content of a requirement:

Issue Key

The unique identification of requirements in the project tree, used to open the Jira issue view and navigate through the tree.

Summary

The headline of a requirement, used in the tree and detail views.

Description

The detailed content of a requirement, most prominent in the detail view.

Linked Issues

Related issues, including the type of the relation.

Attachments

Images or other sorts of content added to the requirements. Images can be used in the description field to illustrate the content.

Comments

A convenient way to discuss the content and state of requirements with colleagues.

Other Jira system fields

Fields displayed in the detail view if values are provided.

Custom fields based on built-in field types

Fields displayed in the detail view if values are provided.

Custom fields based on field types introduced by other apps

Fields displayed in the detail view if values are provided.

Due to the application-specific functionality of the field types introduced by other apps, their expected behavior cannot be guaranteed in easeRequirements views.

Link Types

For the sake of requirement traceability it is important to have the right link types in place. The link types provide the relations that are necessary to get valuable results from the Coverage and Traceability Views. The following link types, with suggested outward and inward descriptions, are recommended. The types are ordered according to how valuable the use of them is likely to be for traceability.

Name

Outward Description

Inward Description

Recommended Usage

Name

Outward Description

Inward Description

Recommended Usage

Trace

trace to

trace from

This type could be used to indicate the relation between a high-level requirement and a more specific, low-level requirement derived from it. For example, it could be used to indicate the relationship between a customer requirement and its detailed specification. It is used to help ensure that a requirement is spelled out in sufficient detail.

Test

tests

tested by

This type could be used to relate test cases to the corresponding requirements. It is used to help ensure that the implementation of a requirement is adequately tested.

Cloners

clones

is cloned by

This type indicates the relation between the original and a copy of a requirement and is useful for requirement reusability.

Duplicate

duplicates

is duplicated by

This type indicate the relationship between requirements with the same meaning but different wording.

Relates

relates to

relates to

This type represents a bidirectional relation, indicating an unspecified relationship between two issues.

The link types Cloners, Duplicate and Relates come with Jira by default. The Trace and Test types (and any others required by your projects) must be created by the Jira administrator.