CLOUD | DATA CENTER AND SERVER
Prepare Jira for R4J Cloud
Overview
Some preparation is needed to successfully use R4J Cloud. 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
R4J Cloud reuses the issues types defined in Jira. We suggest you create the following types:
Folder | To allow you the most flexibility, R4J Cloud 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. |
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 R4J Cloud. Depending on your methodology you can have other issue types or names.
Workflows
Any workflows you design for your issue types can be used with R4J Cloud. 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
R4J Cloud 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 R4J 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 R4J Cloud 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
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.