DATA CENTER AND SERVER | CLOUD

Coverage View

Overview

The Coverage View provides an overview of all project requirements or subsets of requirements from the point of view of completeness. The view helps answer questions such as how well high-level requirements can be traced to low-level requirements, or to other types of items such as test cases, and to help identify gaps in coverage that may require attention. To navigate to the coverage view, open an R4J project and select the Coverage button at the top-right of the Tree View.

The view presents a configurable chain of linked requirements or other types of issues arranged in columns, allowing you to determine the degree to which the requirements cover the domain. The completeness of the coverage is calculated to support the determination. 

For example, you can determine if customer-level features are appropriately spelled out in technical requirements and whether they are in turn subject to test cases.

It is important to understand that the effective use of the coverage view depends on the practices of your organization and its development process. You need to take into account how different types of requirements or other types of issues are structured, as well as how they are linked together and used. An organization might have different practices for different situations, so different coverage views can be defined and saved in the Coverage View.

The sheer number of requirements in a project may also be a challenge to understanding the coverage, so identifying significant subsets of the requirements and saving them in different views also promotes an effective solution.

Coverage View Layout

A panel on the left of the coverage view provides a list of saved views and buttons to manage the views. To open a view, select its name from the list of saved views. The rest of the coverage view displays the requirements included in the view, arranged in columns. Linked requirements are generally positioned adjacent to each other in the columns (though it is possible for them to be non-adjacent).

The view is initially empty. You can either select a saved view or create a new view.

If a large number of requirements are to be displayed, they are incrementally loaded with a bar indicating progress.

Coverage View Operations

Purpose

Operation

Purpose

Operation

Select items for new view

If you do not select a saved view, you first select the requirements that form the leftmost column of the view. This column is the starting point for the coverage and generally contains the highest level requirements in the project.

First select Configure View, then fill in the required information in the Configure View dialog. The Label is the name to use in the column heading.

The requirements are selected in one of three ways:

  • Specify the Projects and Issue Types to be used. For Source, select the option "Issues Types".

  • For Source, select the option "Filter" and provide the name of a saved Jira query.

  • For Source, select the option "JQL" and provide a query in the Jira Query Language.

Add columns

Additional columns are added to display requirements with links to requirements in a different column (generally the column to the immediate left of the new column). Additional columns usually contain more specific levels of requirements.

First select Add Coverage Level, then fill in the required information in the Add Coverage Level dialog. The information is the same as in the Configure View dialog, except for the following additional options:

  • Column Basis: The column whose issues are to be used as the target of links for requirements in the new column. By default, the column immediately to the left of the new column is selected.

  • Link Types: Only requirements with links of the specified types are included in the column.

Update column

Hover on the column header and select the pencil icon to modify the column configuration.

Column information

Hover on the column header and select the question mark to see the column configuration.

View coverage statistics

In the column header, you will see the number of issues in the column and the coverage percentage.

These information can be hidden by selecting “Hide Coverage Statistics“ in the display fields.

The formula which calculates the coverage percentage can also be modified by Jira administrators in the Configuration page.

Tree folder filter

To filter requirements in the leftmost column by tree folder, hover on the column header and select the Filter icon. A dialog will appear which shows the tree folder structure for the project selected. Select one or more folders from the tree folder structure and click on the Select button to apply it to the view.

Clear filter

If a folder filter is enabled, disable it by hovering on the column header and selecting the Clear Filter icon.

Remove column

The rightmost column in the coverage view can be removed by hovering on the column header and selecting the Remove Column icon.

Open issue in R4J tree view

Select an issue key.

  • If the issue is contained in only one project tree, that project tree is opened in a new tab, with the selected issue displayed in the detail view.

  • If the issue is contained in multiple project trees, in the dialog select the project tree to be opened .

  • If the issue is not contained in any project tree, in the dialog confirm that you want to be redirected to the Jira issue view.

Open issue in Jira

Hover on an issue key and in the popup window select the issue key to open the Jira issue view page.

Create a new linked issue

Hover on the cell and select the + icon to open the Add Issue dialog, where you choose the link type and then proceed to create the new issue.

Link an existing issue

Hover on the cell and select the Link icon to open the Link Existing Issue dialog, where you choose the link type and select an issue.

Unlink an issue

Hover on the cell and select the Unlink icon to open the Unlink Issue dialog.

Refresh display

Select Refresh to display the latest state of the requirements.

Clear configuration

Select Clear All to return to an empty view.

Display fields

Select Display Fields to customize the values to be displayed on the cells.

The fields displayed by default are Summary, Key, Issue Type, Status, and Priority in the “Issues“ tab. The details displayed in the each cell can be configured in the Display Fields menu. To add additional fields, click on the Display Fields button and select fields from the available fields by double-clicking or dragging and confirm the selection with the Save button. The configuration is maintained when you save a view.

Display complete field value 

Hover on a truncated field value to display the complete value.

Export

Select the Export menu to save a view in XML or Excel format.

Revision comparison for suspects

When an issue is marked as having a suspect link, the issue link type is displayed as a hyperlink. Select the link to open the Comparison Tool. See https://easesolutions.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/REQ4JCLOUD/pages/1217265665.

Saving Views

The configuration of a coverage view can be saved and reused.

Purpose

Operation

Purpose

Operation

Save new view

Select the Save view as button in the left panel and fill in the required information:

  • Name: Name of the view.

  • Visibility: Specify if the view is private (available only to the currently logged in user) or public (available to all users with access to the project).

Save view

Select the Save View button to save any changes made to an already saved view.

Open saved view

Select an existing view.

Rename view

Hover on the saved view's name, select "..." then select Rename and provide a new name.

Delete view

Hover on the saved view's name, select "..." then select Delete and confirm.

Get URL

Hover on the saved view's name, select "..." then select Get URL to get a shareable link to the view.