Import Requirements From ReqIF

Requirements Interchange Format (ReqIF) is an open industry standard for exchanging requirements between organizations using different requirements management (RM) tools.

The main advantage of ReqIF compared to CSV format is that it supports synchronization of complete requirements specifications including requirements hierarchy, attributes, attachments and traceability without any information loss.

You can use ReqIF to collaborate with your customers that use another RM tool during requirements clarification process or to migrate entire requirements projects from another RM tool. Popular RM tools that support ReqIF include IBM DOORS and IBM DOORS Next Generation (DNG), Polarion Requirements, Windchill, or Visure. For more information about ReqIF use cases see How to Exchange Requirements Between Tools via ReqIF blog post.

Import ReqIF Packages

You can import requirements from ReqIF packages, including their hierarchy, attributes, relations, and attachments, using an automatic one-click import process. No configuration should be required for ReqIF packages that follow the recommended attribute naming conventions, see ReqIF Implementation Guide by prostep ivip association for details.

To import ReqIF packages into a new ReqView project, click Project, select Create Project. In the Create Project dialog choose From ReqIF, and enter an ID of the new project, and press OK.

To import ReqIF packages into the current ReqView project, click File, mouseover Import, and select ReqIF Package.

Choose one or more ReqIF files (.reqif, .reqifz, .xml or .zip) to import in the file picker dialog. The process then differs based on the number of selected files:

• If multiple files were chosen, they will be imported sequentially using the default configuration without being able to customize import of each package. Useful for bulk import or update from different sources.
• If only one file was chosen, the import can be configured and customized as described in the section below.

OLE Objects and Pictures

ReqView tries to extract embedded files from RTF/OLE attachments that come from tools like IBM Rational DOORS. Common files like images, MS Office documents, PDFs etc. will be extracted and the original RTF/OLE wrapper will not be imported.

If ReqView cannot extract an embedded file (because its format is unknown or if the file is an OLE link to another file), the original wrapper file will be imported as RTF. ReqView will open RTF files in your OS-associated application – MS Word, WordPad, LibreOffice Writer etc.

If an OLE object embeds a MS Word or Excel document that contains an embedded picture, ReqView will import the MS Office document, but cannot extract pictures or other data from it automatically.

Please contact us if you have ReqIF files with OLE attachments that are not extracted but you think they should be.

Configuration

When the selected package file is loaded, the application will open the Import ReqIF Package dialog displaying the list of specifications found in the ReqIF package:

You can edit the list of ReqIF specifications to import, see Select ReqIF Specifications.

If you press the Customize button, the dialog will load advanced configuration for your ReqIF package in JSON format. The configuration is based on the current input, showing settings only for the selected specifications and taking the input attribute mapping into account. Press the button again after making some changes to the config to refresh the configuration.

Finally, press the OK button to import the chosen ReqIF specifications as new documents into your current project.

Select ReqIF Specifications

To select ReqIF specifications to import, list the value of either LONG-NAME or IDENTIFIER for each desired ReqIF specification in the reqifSpecifications configuration property (array). All ReqIF specifications will be imported if the reqifSpecifications array is not present in the config.

Example: Import ReqIF specification with LONG-NAME set to "AMR Stakeholder Requirements Specification".

{
  "reqifSpecifications": [
    "AMR Stakeholder Requirements Specification"
  ]
}

Set Document Properties

To map ReqIF specification attributes to ReqView documents properties, set the reqviewDocumentProperties configuration property (object):

• key: ReqView document property — id or name (string)
• value:
  • ReqIF specification attribute (string)
  • list of ReqIF specification attributes (array)
  • map of user-defined values (object)
    • key: LONG-NAME or IDENTIFIER of the imported ReqIF specification (string)
    • value: user-defined value of the ReqView document property (string)

Example: Set the ReqView document identifier to the value of LONG-NAME for all imported ReqIF specifications.

{
  "reqviewDocumentProperties": {
    "id": "LONG-NAME"
  }
}

Example: Set the ReqView document identifier to the value of ReqIF.Prefix or IDENTIFIER (in order of preference) for all imported ReqIF specifications:

{
  "reqviewDocumentProperties": {
    "id": ["ReqIF.Prefix", "IDENTIFIER"]
  }
}

Example: Set the ReqView document identifier to "SRS" for the imported ReqIF specification with LONG-NAME equal to "Software Requirements Specification".

{
  "reqviewDocumentProperties": {
    "id": {
      "Software Requirements Specification": "SRS"
    }
  }
}

The default configuration for setting values of ReqView document properties is:

{
  "reqviewDocumentProperties": {
    "id": ["ReqIF.ForeignID", "ReqIF.Prefix", "LONG-NAME", "IDENTIFIER"],
    "name": ["ReqIF.Description", "ReqIF.Name", "LONG-NAME"]
  }
}

Set Object Attributes

By default, ReqView imports all attributes of ReqIF spec objects. ReqView document object attributes have unique identifiers created from LONG-NAME or IDENTIFIER of ReqIF spec object type attribute definitions. "ReqIF." prefix is removed from all attribute IDs. If attribute data types clash then attribute IDs are prefixed with LONG-NAME or IDENTIFIER of the ReqIF spec object type attribute to disambiguate them.

To configure the attributes mapping from ReqIF spec objects to ReqView document objects, set the reqifObjectAttributes configuration property (object):

• key: LONG-NAME or IDENTIFIER of an imported ReqIF spec object attribute (string)
• value:
  • ReqView document object attribute ID (string)
  • null to ignore the attribute

If the ReqIF spec object attribute is not defined for any imported spec object then it is ignored. You can also explicitly ignore a ReqIF spec object attribute by setting the null value in the configuration.

Example: Set values of ReqView system attribute text from ReqIF spec object attribute RichText for all imported document objects.

{
  "reqifObjectAttributes": {
    "RichText": "text"
  }
}

To configure the mapping for a given ReqIF spec object type, set values of the reqifObjectAttributes configuration property as follows:

• key: LONG-NAME or IDENTIFIER of an imported ReqIF spec object type (string)
• value: attributes mapping for the ReqIF spec object type (object)
  • key: LONG-NAME or IDENTIFIER of an imported ReqIF spec object attribute (string)
  • value:
    • ReqView document object attribute ID (string)
    • null to ignore the attribute

Example: Set values of ReqView system attribute heading from ReqIF spec object attribute Title defined for the ReqIF spec object type Section Type.

{
  "reqifObjectAttributes": {
    "Section Type": {
      "Title": "heading"
    }
  }
}

Example: Ignore import of attribute ReqIF.ChapterNumber defined for all ReqIF spec objects and attribute Description defined for ReqIF spec object type Section Type.

{
  "reqifObjectAttributes": {
    "ReqIF.ChapterNumber": null,
    "Section Type": {
      "Description": null
    }
  }
}

Unless explicitly overridden, the following default mapping is applied automatically (it doesn’t need to be added manually):

{
  "reqifObjectAttributes": {
    "ReqIF.ChapterName": "heading",
    "ReqIF.Text": "text"
  }
}

Note: To keep the config concise, the Customize function will not prefill those defaults.

Example ReqIF Import

Let’s assume that we have received a ReqIF file exported from ProR open-source RM tool. Download the example ReqIF file used in this tutorial.

We need to import ReqIF specifications Specification Document and Glossary as new ReqView documents with IDs SPEC and GLOSSARY and set their names. We need to map ReqIF spec object attributes to ReqView document attributes as follows:

• Map ReqIF attribute Description → ReqView system attribute text
• Override mapping of ReqIF attribute Description for spec object types Section Type and Use Case Type → ReqView system attribute heading
• Ignore ReqIF attribute Known Problems
• Map all other ReqIF attributes → ReqView custom attributes

Follow these steps:

1. Click File, then Import, and finally ReqIF Package from the main menu.

2. Select the imported ReqIF file

3. In the Import ReqIF Package dialog, click Customize to prefill the configuration details automatically.

4. Adjust the JSON configuration as follows:

   {
     "reqifSpecifications": [
       "Specification Document",
       "Glossary"
     ],
     "reqviewDocumentProperties": {
       "id": {
         "Specification Document": "SPEC",
         "Glossary": "GLOSSARY"
       },
       "name": {
         "Specification Document": "Specification",
         "Glossary": "Glossary"
       }
     },
     "reqifObjectAttributes": {
       "Description": "text",
       "Known Problems": null,
       "Section Type": {
         "Description": "heading"
       },
       "Use Case Type": {
         "Description": "heading"
       }
     }
   }

5. Click Customize again to update the configuration by default values.

6. Click OK to import the ReqIF file.

As a result, ReqView successfully imports SPEC document with a list of use cases, GLOSSARY document with the definition of common terms, and traceability links between use cases to the related terms in the glossary:

Update From ReqIF

You can iteratively update ReqView documents imported from ReqIF, for instance stakeholder requirements from a customer using another RM tool.

ReqView importer persists ReqIF metadata describing the necessary IDs, types etc. to match documents and objects during successive imports. Mapping of attribute IDs that were already imported cannot be changed. You can press Customize and check the Show only new attributes checkbox in the Import ReqIF Package dialog to hide the already mapped attributes and see only new attributes in the ReqIF package.

You can prevent updating a specific subset of attributes imported from a ReqIF file. For instance, if attributes describing supplier status and comment for stakeholder requirements are updated in ReqView and not in the original RM tool of the ReqIF file provided by your customer. To prevent overwriting a specific attribute during ReqIF import map the attribute to null in the Import ReqIF Package dialog, see Set Object Attributes.

Note: You can update ReqView documents imported from ReqIF using ReqView v2.15 and later. Please contact us if you need help with updating documents imported from ReqIF with ReqView v2.14.

Note: ReqView stores all ReqIF type information (IDs, datatypes, enum values etc. of attributes contained in SPECIFICATION-TYPE, SPEC-OBJECT-TYPE and SPEC-RELATION-TYPE tags) and maintains type consistency when ReqIF types are shared between ReqView entities (documents, objects, link types) – this implies that all ReqView entities that share any ReqIF type must be imported/updated together using one ReqIF package.

ReqIF SRC Round-trip

You can collaborate with your customers on Stakeholder Request Clarification (SRC) by exchanging ReqIF files, see Workflow for ReqIF Round-trip Between IBM DOORS and ReqView.

IBM DOORS is a legacy requirements management tool, which has been used widely for the development of complex HW/SW products in the aerospace & defense, automotive, and railway industries. IBM DOORS Next Generation (DNG) is its successor based on modern IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) platform.

The original RM tool used by your customer can match updated requirements during ReqIF round-trip because ReqView stores ReqIF metadata (such as ReqIF IDs) in project files when you import a ReqIF package and reuses the saved ReqIF metadata when exporting a document back to the customer. For more information how to export ReqIF files from ReqView see Export Requirements to ReqIF.

Example: Import initial version of AMR Stakeholder Requirements Specification from DNG to ReqView to provide supplier feedback via ReqIF round-trip.

Export ReqIF from DNG:

Import ReqIF to ReqView:

Delete ReqIF Metadata

You can delete all persisted ReqIF metadata – object and type identifiers that are needed for iterative update, export or round-trip sync. The main use cases for deleting ReqIF metadata are:

• When ReqView will become the new source of truth for all identifiers and attribute definitions after one-time data migration from another RM tool.
• To fix identifier conflicts or missing and inconsistent attribute or object type definitions after manual modification of ReqView JSON data files.

To delete all persisted ReqIF metadata, click Project, mouseover Maintenance and select Delete ReqIF Metadata.

Note: Deleting ReqIF metadata has the following consequences:

• If data was imported from ReqIF, updating it from the original source or exporting an update for the original source will not be possible.
• If data was created in ReqView and exported to ReqIF, updating the data from ReqIF or creating an updating (iterative) ReqIF export will not be possible.