Using views

Use views to visualize work items, requirements, design models, and test cases during your product release. Further, certain views, such as V Process, show the latest status across the product lifecycle.

For example, the V Process view starts on the left side with a system design task and ends on the right side with an item integration and testing task. The view shows teams each phase of product creation through to final testing.

Further, team members can hover over any of the tasks to see lists of child tasks and follow-on tasks. Users can also show more details about the task, and can open the task in the native tool to modify the task.

Before you begin

You can use views customized by your administrator or shipped samples. All private views display in the Views page in My Views; all shared views display in Shared Views.

Administrators can use artifact elements to build views in the Views editor. (Artifact elements are containers that automatically gather information that you can use to build a view. Use artifact elements as building blocks to visualize the data you need to track.) Open the Palette accordion on the right and select an artifact element from one of the default folders.

Procedure

  1. In the Views page, click the Shared Views tab.

    Look at the list of views available to your team. The views were created for many reasons. For example, the sample V Process (Software) view shows the software lifecycle for a software product. The Task breakdown view breaks down a top-level concept into a set of concrete tasks to be completed by the product ship date. The Traceability from Task to Test Case view traces all of the child tasks, requirements, design models, and test cases that emanate from a focus task.

    The point of views is to help teams visualize all the work to be completed for a product release. Further, the visibility of the different parts, such as requirements and test cases, help teams remain focused to meet product goals by specific milestones. Some lines have arrows that point in the direction of the artifact work flow.

  2. Select the view you want to use and run it by clicking it.
  3. View the information.

    Hover over and read information for the artifacts that are of interest to you. Look at the child tasks and view the details.

    Notice the lines connecting artifacts. Click a line to view artifacts that have dependencies. After you click a line, a colored circle highlights the artifacts that are dependent.

  4. Act on the artifact.

    Right-click an artifact to show the context menu.

    The following actions are displayed regardless of the type of artifact you select:
    • Open Artifact starts the native tool that the artifact was created in and displays the artifact in the tool. You can then modify the artifact, save it, and refresh the view, and then see your changes reflected in the view.
    • Show Query runs the query for the selected artifact and displays the results in the Query Result screen.
    • Start Analysis loads the default impact analysis profile. Click Run to start the analysis.
    • Find Use opens the Find Use page, with a list of configurations and products that are using the artifact.
    • Edit Parameters opens the Set Parameters dialog box. Setting parameters is not required, but can be useful because parameters allow users of the artifact element to refine the query by entering values. The values are substituted into the query and hone the query results.
    The following actions are displayed, depending on the type of artifact you select:
    • Open Resource with Children opens the selected artifact in the Task Hierarchy view, which is the hierarchical layout shown in the image.
    • Open Traceability View opens the selected artifact in the Traceability from Task to Requirement view, which maps the selected artifact to its child tasks and requirements.

    The following actions are displayed if administrators right-click an artifact element container in the editor:

    • Show Links To gives a list of artifacts with a relationship to the focus artifact that you can link to and use to build a view.
  5. Share a private view with your team.
    1. In the My Views screen, find the view you want to share and click the Move or Copy Selected Views icon on the far right.
    2. In the Move or Copy Selected Views dialog, click Move and then select the shared view folder where you want to share the view.
    3. Click OK.
  6. Export a view to save it outside of the tool.
    1. In the My or Shared Views screen, select a view you want to export and click the Export Views icon.
    2. In the Opening Views dialog, click Save File and then specify where you want the view saved.
    3. Click OK.

Example

Look at the following Task Hierarchy view. The view shows artifacts, in a hierarchical layout, that are part of the product development.

The image shows the Task Hierarchy view, displaying artifacts organized hierarchically and hover text for an artifact with child tasks.

In the view, notice that some artifacts have child tasks and some do not. Also, notice the decorators to the left of the task numbers. Use the decorators to understand the status of the artifact at a glance. The decorators are defined as follows:

The image is a definition table of decorators and their meaning.

If you want more information, click the task, in the example, Task 204, to open the task in the native tool, such as Rational Team Concert™. The hover text shows child tasks that you can also click to open in the native tool.

What to do next


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