Digital Project Manager: An Overview of Modern Requirements4DevOps

The Digital Project Manager: An Overview on Modern Requirements4DevOps

Detailed Overview & Explanation Of Requirements Management Features

What is Modern Requirements4DevOps?

What is Modern Requirements4DevOps? Read on to discover how Modern Requirements4DevOps works—what problems it can help you solve and who uses it, along with a tour of its features, pricing, and integrations.

I’ll also explain how Modern Requirements4DevOps compares to similar tools.

Read the full article on Digital Project Manager.

Now Released: Modern Requirements4DevOps 2020

Now Released: Modern Requirements4DevOps 2020

Details of Modern Requirements4DevOps 2020's Core Enhancements!

User friendly, short cycle times, ability to author requirements online, compliance reporting, and reduced development rework. These are just a few of the phrases that have been used by our customers to describe the aptitude of several modules within the Modern Requirements4DevOps application. New features and enhancements have been made to the modules with our 2020 release.

Here we will share a few highlights made to a few of our modules within Modern Requirements and some tool enhancements for your convenience. Modules that we will be outlining are:

  1. Rights Management
  2. Review Enhancements
  3. Smart Docs Enhancements
  4. Smart Reports Enhancements
  5. Baseline Enhancements
  6. MatCal (New!)

 

1. Rights Management: You asked, and we listened. You can now manage User Access. A user (must have collection/project Admin) rights can now manage user access to both modules of Modern Requirements4DevOps, and the features within each module. Setting these permissions is as easy as one-two-three… steps to set permissions:

  • Access your project
  • Go to Project Settings
  • Scroll down to Extension > click on Modern Requirements4DevOps

This is what you will see:

From this screen, you will be able to set the *Group and/or *Team permissions (located on the left panel). There are two ways to set permissions, you can either do it in the “*Common Settings” or within “*Modern Requirements4DevOps Modules” individually (located on the right panel of the permissions tab). Here you can set permissions for the features of each modules.

The permission options available are:

  1. Create/Edit Folder
  2. Delete Folder
  3. Create/Update Artifact
  4. Delete Artifact
  5. Create/Update Meta Template
  6. Save as Template
  7. Smart Reporting
  8. Report Designer

Currently, Rights Management is supported for three modules: Smart Docs, Baseline and Reporting.

Rights Management Video

For further details on what’s new in Rights Management and its functionality please refer to the video.

 

2. Review Enhancements: The Review module allows you to communicate, review, and approve within the project environment and facilitate change when necessary. Enhancements have been made to Review module. Here is a list of a few of the new features:

  • Read-only rights to non-participants of review
  • Auto Bulk generation of review Audit Reports
  • Audit Reports Format- Word/PDF

Read-only rights to non-participants of review: With this enhancement you now have the ability to configure rights for non-participants where they can view review details in read-only mode.

Non-participants users: Users that are neither the approver nor the reviewer.

Auto Bulk generation of review Audit Reports: This enhancement will allow you to generate Audit Reports of all reviews in a project at once in bulk or project wise from admin panel.

You can select project(s) and provide details here to generate the audit reports of their existing reviews automatically

Audit Reports Format – Word/PDF: System now gives you the ability to select format in which you want to generate the audit reports in. You can select either word or PDF version.

The purpose of Approval Audit report is to provide details of all the work items in a Review. It provides complete status regarding who has approved or rejected the review work items along with the comments and decisions

How to configure settings:
  • Go to Admin/Collections Setting
  • Scroll down to Extensions
  • Choose Modern Requirements4DevOps2020
  • Go to Review tab (look for the option you want to make the changes to)
Note: For a detailed list of enhancements and new features please refer to “Modern Requirements4DevOps 2020 Release Notes” under Review Management (page 10).

Review Management Video

For further details on what’s new in Review Management and its functionality please refer to the video.

 

3. Smart Docs Enhancements: Smart Docs is a tool that bridges the gap between document and information management by authoring requirements in a document view online. New features have been added to Smart Docs, some of the highlights are as follows:

  • Full Screen Support
  • Right Panel UI Update
  • Inherit Parent Properties Update

Full Screen Support: In order to have a better user experience and larger display you can now view Smart Docs in full screen mode.  Which means a better view when building your online requirement documents.

Right Panel UI Update:

  • For your convenience a cross icon has been added to the right panel UI. Which means you can now close the right panel directly through the panel itself.
  • If this was not enough, we have also added expand/collapse capability to the “*find” query area for a better user experience.
  • Also, in order to provide more space to show more work items, “Add child/sibling” and “Select all/ unselect all” buttons have been removed. Remember, you can still drag and drop your work items into the document section.

Inherit Parent Properties Update: This is an update with which by default, the check box to inherit parent work item properties in child work item will be shown ‘un-checked’. 

Note: If no properties are selected from the drop-down option, then no properties will be inherited in the child work item.

Smart Docs Video

For further details on what’s new in Smart Docs and its functionality please refer to the video.

 

4. Smart Reports Enhancements: Smart Report enables users to format their reports according to the work items structure. It is accessible from many of the ADO and Modern Requirements4DevOps modules. Here is a list of some of the tool enhancements made to Smart Report module:

  • Upload macro-enabled Word template
  • Retain selection of last uploaded Word template
  • Retain selection of last Smart Part

Upload macro-enabled Word template: Smart Report now allows you to upload and execute Macro-Enabled Word document (.docm) as well as Macro-Enabled Word Template (.dotm) files in Smart Report through “Upload word template”. It will make your user-friendly option of uploading word templates even more of a breeze.

Retain selection of last uploaded Word template: Guess what… Smart rReport has now become smarter, it will now retain the last selection that you made while uploading your word template. 

Retain selection of last Smart Part: Well we did not stop at remembering the last selection for the word template… Enhancements have been made where the system will now also retain the selection of your last Smart Report Part as well. Well, it is winning all the way for report creators.

Smart Report Video

For further details on what’s new in Smart Reports and its functionality please refer to the video.

 

5. Baseline Enhancements: Baseline allows you to take a snapshot of your requirements at a point in time to allow better control and track changes. Here is how it will make your work experience even better:

  • Retain work item selection on tab switching
  • Comparison ID on Baseline comparison

Retain work item selection on tab switching: System will now remember the last work item selection when navigating between different tabs within baseline. What does that mean?  Well, while working with a baseline (specially with a large one), navigate to Compare or Detail tab and back to View tab if you have forgotten which work item you were working with…  Worry no more, because the system will remember it for you.

Comparison ID on Baseline comparison: Enhancements have been made so you can now view work item revisions only where work items exist within both baselines being compared. For example: if a work item doesn’t exist in one of the baselines, no revision ID will be displayed, instead “-” will be displayed in Rev.ID or Comp.Rev.ID column. This rule will also be applied in the difference report.

Baseline Video

For further details on what’s new in Baseline and its functionality please refer to the video.

 

6. MatCal (New): A new feature has been introduced to Modern Requirements to perform mathematical and logical expressions. Sounds exciting? Well, we are excited about it. Here’s why:

  • It will allow you to have work items field(s) automatically calculated based on input of other field(s) of the same work item(s)
  • It can be applied to any work item fields, including numerical, Boolean, and textual types of work item fields

What you need to do: Provide your formulas to a Modern Requirements Customer Success team member and we will be happy to configure it on your behalf.

MatCal Video

For further details on MatCal and its functionality please refer to the video.

 

 

 

 

 
For a detailed list of all enhancements and features please made in 2020 release, please refer to Modern Requirements4DevOps 2020 Release Notes.

We are excited to announce that Modern Requirements4DevOps 2020 is now available for download!

Introduction to Rights Management

Introduction to Rights Management

What is Rights Management?

Rights Management is a new feature in MR2020 Release to control user access. The project administrator can grant or deny a group of users from accessing an MR module and its functionalities. Currently, Rights Management is available for three MR modules: Smart Docs, Baseline, and Reporting.

The Benefits of Using Rights Management

Flexible and customizable permissions allow project teams to maintain the appropriate balance of collaboration and control.

Whenever a permission change takes place, it will immediately impact every user team/group that is assigned the permissions. This ensures that permission settings can easily be updated and maintained as projects progress and teams change roles.

How to Access Rights Management

Rights Management can be accessed from the Modern Requirements4DevOps extension under Project Settings.

Group Features

The available features which you can set permissions for varies from module to module.

The available Group Features are as follows:

  1. Create /Edit Folder
  2. Delete Folder
  3. Create/Update Artifact
  4. Delete Artifact
  5. Create/Update Meta Template
  6. Save As Template
  7. Smart Report Generation
  8. Smart Report Designer

Permissions Selections

There are typically three types of permission access to choose from for each group feature:

“Allow”

“Deny”

“Not Set”

  1. “Allow”: Explicitly grants users the permission to access a group feature in MR module(s).
  2. “Deny”: Explicitly restricts users from accessing a group feature in MR module(s).
  3. “Not Set”: Implicitly denies users the ability to access a group feature in MR module(s).

Inherited Permissions

Teams/Groups can automatically inherit permission settings from parent Teams/Groups. Permissions Settings explicitly changed in the child teams/groups may override permissions inherited from parent Teams/Groups. Keep the following rules in mind:

  1. Inherited “Allow” values can be overridden to “Deny”.
  2. Inherited “Not Set” value can be overridden to “Allow” or “Deny”.
  3. Inherited “Deny” value cannot be overridden to “Allow”.

Permission Conflicts

When same user exists in more than one teams/groups, the following rules apply:

  1. “Deny” has preference over “Allow”.
  2. “Deny” has preference over “Not Set”.
  3. “Allow” has preference over “Not Set”.

Please watch the detailed tutorial video on Rights Management!

If you have any questions or thoughts about Rights Management, please contact your Customer Success Representative of Modern Requirements and we will be happy to work with you to explore this feature.
Time to Read: 10 minutes

Using MatCal to Perform Mathematical and Logical Calculations in Modern Requirements Management

Using MatCal to Perform Mathematical and Logical Calculations in Modern Requirements Management

What is MatCal?

MatCal is a feature in Modern Requirement4DevOps used to perform mathematical and logical expressions on work items.

Why we need MatCal in Requirements Management

To manage the relationships between work item properties in a smarter way! It eliminates the manual efforts of doing the calculation outside the project environment and avoids risks of introducing incorrect calculation results to your projects.

Let’s look at a simple example here to illustrate a relationship between work item properties.

Business Value and Priority are properties of work item Feature.  Normally, high Business Value leads to high Priority.

With the right configuration, MatCal could help you manage the relationship by automatically assigning Priority value based on the Business Value input.

Industry Use Scenarios

Scenario 1: Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) in ISO 26262

Scenario 2: Risk rating is automatically assigned according to Severity score and Occurrence score

Scenario 3: Priority rating is automatically assigned according to Severity score and Likelihood score

Please watch the video for extra usage scenarios and tutorials on MatCal!

Time to Read: 10 minutes

Reusing Requirements

Requirements Reuse: An Effective Way to Facilitate Requirements Elicitation

Learn how to Reuse Requirements in Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps is an incredible platform that provides a single-source of truth. 
For many teams that statement alone is enough to consider using the world’s leading ALM platform for their requirements management. Being able to tie development tasks to requirements, and those to Test Cases is hard to pass up. 

But what if you don’t need all of the features of a full ALM platform?
What if you only need a solution for your Requirements Management needs? 

You can use all of the rich features of Modern Requirements4DevOps to turn your Azure DevOps project into a full-featured Requirements Management solution. One of these features is the ability to reuse requirements across different projects, collections, and servers using the Modern Requirements4DevOps Reuse tool.

Looking to reuse requirements? 
You’re in the right place. 

What you’ll learn in this short article:

  1. Benefits of reusing requirements
  2. The two types of reusing requirements
  3. How reusing requirements can be used effectively

The Benefits of Reusing Requirements

When we talk about the benefits of requirements reuse there is one thing that needs to be addressed first.

The most common question I get from hardware teams is “How could this possibly benefit teams who aren’t software-related?”

So before we begin, requirements reuse is not just for software teams.

Requirements reuse is a topic that often catches people’s attention.

This is because in the world economy we are seeing companies focusing on given domain or areas within given industries. This leads to companies building products within a specific domain, or around a given solution, and really narrowing in on the few things they can be really successful at.

This means that as you build projects, solutions, or systems, often a team can reuse elements of a previous project. This is where requirements reuse fits into the picture.

By enabling a team to reuse those requirements in the next project they are able to reduce the amount of overhead required in getting started in a new project.

For some people this might already be obvious.

What might not be obvious, however, is that reuse can also be a great way of handling requirements that are scoped above the project level. This would include non-functional requirements, or risks that need to be considered as a company-wide mandate. This would even go so far as to allow your team to reuse requirements whose purpose is strictly regulatory or compliance-centric. This functionality can be extended to software and hardware teams alike and can even help teams product teams devoted to a physical component or deliverable.

 

The Two Types of Reusing Requirements

Reusing Requirements by Reference

Reusing requirements by reference is a quick way to introduce existing requirements to your project by simply building links with them. By doing this, you could have direct access to those work items and review all the associated content, links, and attachments without actually copying them within or across projects.

Reusing Requirements by Reference

 

Reusing Requirements by Copy

In Azure DevOps there is very limited functionality for copying requirements, or other work items, from one project to another. But when you add Modern Requirements4DevOps into your Azure DevOps environment, requirements reuse meets its full potential.

When discussing the Reusing Requirements by Copy, there are three major approaches to consider.

Reusing Requirements by Copy

 

How to Reuse Requirements Effectively

After watching the above videos it is obvious that the Modern Requirements4DevOps Reuse tool is effective for reusing requirements.
It offers full control over the requirements you are choosing to reuse, allows you to apply customization to those requirements, and allows you to link the requirements to the source work item.

This means no matter where you want to send requirements, you can do so using the Modern Requirements4DevOps Reuse tool. But there are some ways that you can use the Reuse tool more effectively. 

The first notable mention is by pairing the reuse tool with the Modern Requirements4DevOps Baseline tool. 

What is a Baseline?
Many teams use Baselines of requirements and don’t even realize they do.

A Baseline is a snapshot of Work Items at a given point in time. 
For many teams they simply use Microsoft Word document versions as a baseline. 

When talking about capturing requirements at a given time, there are many reasons why the Modern Requirements4DevOps feature is better than the traditional Microsoft Word approach. With Modern Requirements4DevOps Baselines, you are able to capture a set of, work items as they were on any date of your choosing.

This means if you want to capture your requirements as they are two weeks ago, you can easily create a Baseline for those requirements on that date. This lends itself directly to the benefits of the Reuse tool added by Modern Requirements4DevOps.

By combining the Reuse tool with our Baseline, you can not only choose the set of requirements you want to reuse but also the version of those requirements as well. This allows you to take the best and most applicable version of your requirements forward to your next project. 

The next notable mention is to use the prefix / postfix / and other operations effectively when reusing requirements.

When reusing requirements, the Modern Requirements4DevOps Reuse tool allows you to customize how the requirements being reused will appear in their destination project. 

The screen which allows you to do this can be seen below:

 

Using the above feature will allow you to easily add a prefix or postfix to the requirements once they reach your chosen destination project. As seen above, you can also choose to send these requirements to a specific area path (like hardware or software for instance), or even into a given iteration so you can decide when these requirements get handled. 

The most commonly used feature in the field options, however, is the ability to add a tag. 
Often when you are sending requirements from one project to another you want to be able to easily identify and trace those requirements in your destination project. Adding a Tag will allow you to do this.

What is the link with Source Work Item Option?

This option allows you to establish a link between the work item you are reusing and the work item you create in your destination project. 

What link does it create? 
It links your new destination work item to your original work item via the “Related” link or any link type that you have configured in the admin area.
In the below image you can see a Test Case I have copied from project to project, using both the prefix “CL- ” and the “Link to source work item” options set.

 

Using the “Link to source work item” feature allows you to easily trace requirements back to where they were pulled from. While there are many use cases for this feature when moving requirements directly from project to project, this more advanced use cases are for when you are moving requirements from a library or repository into a project instead. 

How to merge copied baselines?

Baseline is a very useful tool no matter you want to reuse a single work item or a long list of work items from your source project/library. In Modern Requirements, you could create links between your source and copied works items so that you could locate the origins of these copied work items.

Although there are links in between, the copied work items are still considered to be independent of the source work items, which means any changes you make to either the copied or source work items will not impact their counterpart.

You might want to ask: how to synchronize the changes when necessary? Assume you have a library where all your design specification work items are saved, and you have reused them in 5 different projects. If now you have to modify some designs in the library, and you want all copied design specifications to be synchronized, you can simply use the Merge functionality, which is located under Source Copied Baseline(s) or Target Copied Baseline(s) in the Details tab of the Baseline module.

Baseline is a very useful tool no matter you want to reuse a single work item or a long list of work items from your source project/library. In Modern Requirements, you could create links between your source and copied works items so that you could locate the origins of these copied work items.

Although there are links in between, the copied work items are still considered to be independent of the source work items, which means any changes you make to either the copied or source work items will not impact their counterpart.

You might want to ask: how to synchronize the changes when necessary? Assume you have a library where all your design specification work items are saved, and you have reused them in 5 different projects. If now you have to modify some designs in the library, and you want all copied design specifications to be synchronized, you can simply use the Merge functionality, which is located under Source Copied Baseline(s) or Target Copied Baseline(s) in the Details tab of the Baseline module.

Still remember the definition of a baseline? A snapshot of selected work items at a point in time. So no matter what changes we have made to the baselined work items, the saved snapshot won’t change. So even if we have merged the baselines, the changes are done against the latest versions of the work items, not to the baselines themselves. Sounds like a little bit hard to understand?

Please watch the 5-minute Merge Copied Baselines video.

Merge Copied Baselines

 

Want to experience reuse's full potential?

Try Modern Requirements4DevOps for free today.

We offer you the ability to try our Requirements Management solution in your own Azure DevOps environment, or in an environment we supply that includes sample data. 

Importing Requirements to Azure DevOps

Importing Requirements into Azure DevOps

Learn how to easily import requirements (and some assets) into your ADO project

When moving to Azure DevOps, or when working offline away from your existing Azure DevOps project, you need a way to bring your newly created requirements into Azure DevOps.

Many teams face the issue of getting the requirements they have created in Excel, Word, and elsewhere into Azure DevOps. Luckily there are a few simple ways to do this without having to worry about adding a lengthy copy/paste session to your process! 

In this article, we’ll cover a few different ways to import requirements.

One of these options is free, and some are features provided by adding Modern Requirements4DevOps to your Azure DevOps project. 

The topics in this article are as follows:

  1. Importing Requirements from Microsoft Excel
  2. Importing Requirements from Microsoft Word
  3. Importing Diagrams and Mockups into Azure DevOps

Importing Requirements from Microsoft Excel

Whether you have all or some of your existing requirements in Excel, or you are looking to export requirements from an in-house tool to a .csv file, there is a free way to import your requirements to your Azure DevOps project. 

This is a free solution – provided you already have Azure DevOps and Excel.

The first step is to make sure you have the Microsoft Excel add-in called “Team tab.”

You can download this add-in directly from the link below:
https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/#other-family

(On the aforementioned page, Azure DevOps Office® Integration 2019 is listed under the Other Tools, Frameworks, and Redistributables section. )

If you clicked the link above, you will have the ability to turn on your Excel team tab. 

When enabled, this extension allows you to connect an Excel sheet directly to a given project in your Azure DevOps Organization. 

When you enable it you will have two primary functions available to you:
1) You will be able to publish requirements to your project from Excel
2) You will be able to pull requirements from your project to Excel

This means you can work on your requirements from either interface and connect the changes to your project. i.e. if you pull requirements into Excel and make changes, you can publish those changes backup to your requirements in your project. 

After you have run the installer you downloaded you are ready to enable the extension.

Enabling the Team tab in Excel:

  1. Open Excel
  2. Create a Blank Sheet 
  3. Click File
  4. Click Options
  5. Click Add-ins
  6. Choose COM Add-ins from the drop down near the bottom of the window
  7. Select “Team Foundation Add-In and select Okay. 
If you have issues with this process, follow this link.
 
If you now see the Team tab in Excel, you’re ready to import requirements! 

Using the Excel Team tab

In this video, we cover how your team can use the Import capabilities provided by the Excel Team tab Add-in.

 

Importing Requirements from Microsoft Word

The second way to import requirements into your project is through Microsoft Word. 

This feature is a “Preview Feature” available with any Enterprise Plus Modern Requirements4DevOps license. This means any user in your organization with an Enterprise Plus license will be be able to access and use the Word Import Feature. 

If you aren’t currently using Modern Requirements4DevOps, you can try this Word Import Feature by trying Modern Requirements4DevOps today!

Give it a try!

So how does Word Import work? 

Warning: As a Preview Feature, you should expect that this might not be prettiest solution, and will typically require some coding knowledge. But not much – and if you can borrow a developer familiar with xml (or any other scripting language) for 20 minutes, you should be just fine.

Word Import works by having a well-formatted Word document which uses different Headings to represent the different Work Items / Requirements and their properties in your document. 

For example, let’s take an example of a BRD you might already have in Word format.

You likely have your Introduction, Overview, Scope, and other context elements using the style of Heading 1

You might then have your Epics, Features and User Stories in this document as well. Your document might look like this:

Heading 1 – Introduction
-> Paragraph – All of the text for the Introduction goes here…

Heading 1 – Overview
-> Paragraph – All of the text for the Overview goes here…

Heading 1 – Scope

-> Paragraph – All of the text for the Scope goes here…

Heading 1 – Requirements
-> Heading 2 – Name of Epic
–> Heading 3 – Name of Feature
—> Heading 4 – Name of User Story
—-> Paragraph – Description of the User Story above

Now, your document might be a little different but that’s okay. The principles you are about to learn are the same. 

Word import requires a document (shown above) and a ruleset (explained below).

Typically an admin will create a ruleset that your team will use for importing documents, and it will only have to be done once. So if you have a document already created and your admin has created a ruleset you’re good to go. 

If your admin needs to create a ruleset, read on. 

Creating a ruleset is incredibly simple and is done by editing an XML file. 
The XML file you create will determine how the Word Import tool parses your document for:
1) Which pieces of the document are work items?
2) Which pieces of the document are properties of a given work item?

If you are working through this in real-time, it might help to download this ruleset file as a starting point and watch the following video:

Using the Sample Ruleset to Start

In this video, we cover how to use the sample ruleset file to import a simple requirements document. Please remember creating a ruleset is typically a one-time process. 

 

Importing Diagrams and Mockups into Azure DevOps

Diagrams, Mockups, and Use Case models can be incredible tools for authoring and eliciting requirements. 

This is why with Modern Requirements4DevOps, your team can easily build all of these visualizations directly from within your project. This allows you to benefit from a single-source of truth model where everything is built into your project. 

But maybe you already have Diagrams and Mockups that you would like to add to your Azure DevOps project and connect to requirements. Is it possible to import these assets?

The answer is yes.

Both our Mockup tool and our Diagram tool will allow you to easily bring existing Mockups or Diagrams into your Azure DevOps project. 

To do this, simply save your asset as a .png or .jpeg file from your chosen Mockup/Diagram tool. 
You can then upload your created asset to either the Modern Requirements4DevOp Simulation tool (mockups) or Diagram tool (diagrams). 

You might be thinking, but if we upload it as .png or .jpeg then how can we edit our Diagrams and Mockups? Well, you can’t. But there’s a reason you should do this even still. 

If you want to connect a single Diagram to 25 requirements without using Modern Requirements, you will have to open all 25 requirements and connect them to each individual requirement. 

When you update your Diagram in the future, you will have to reopen all 25 requirements and change the attachment. 

With Modern Requirements4DevOps however, you are able to create a Diagram work item that you can link all of your necessary requirements directly to using the right panel. This means you will be able to have your Diagram in one place, and when that Diagram needs updating, you can easily add in your updated image, and connect your attachment to that single work item. 

Conclusion

In this article we covered three distinct ways that you can import both requirements and their assets to your Azure DevOps project. 

You can import requirements through Excel or Word, or import your existing Diagrams and Mockups. 

If you are interested in using Modern Requirements4DevOps to support your requirements management process, consider giving our product a try here!

Time to Read: 10 minutes

The FAQ Module

The FAQ Module

The solution for upfront requirements gathering

In this article we cover the features and benefits of the FAQ module.

This module was designed to help teams who gather requirements at the start of their requirements management process. By creating question lists teams can easily capture and reuse their knowledge of the elicitation process to ask the right questions that yield the best requirements.

What is the FAQ module?

The FAQ module is a repository of question lists that your team can construct, edit, change, template, and use to elicit requirements. By using the FAQ module to build up a knowledge base for your team, you can be confident that any team member can engage with stakeholders in an effective manner.

By building the best set of questions on that domain, your team can ensure that they are always eliciting the best possible set of requirements.

The main benefit of this module is that it allows your team the opportunity to build up a knowledge base that can be used by both experienced BA’s, as well as by those who might need to elicit requirements in an unfamiliar domain. The FAQ module comes already stocked with over 3000 questions that cover many different topics.

These topics include multiple ISO Compliance templates, as well as templates on Non-Functional Requirement topics such Scalability, Reusability, or Operability that can be used for elicitation.

For many teams this module will replace their Excel-based question lists they may have used in the past.

To stay in line with the other modules in the Modern Requirements toolset, the FAQ module takes what used to be a disconnected process and connects it directly with your project. This means your teams can easily add requirements into your project simply by supplying answers to the questions in your FAQ question list.

What Value does the FAQ module offer?

The value of our FAQ module can be described in two simple points.

  • The FAQ module helps create better requirements by guiding the elicitation process, leading to a greater likelihood of project success.
  • The FAQ module reduces the time spent on elicitation throughout your project, allowing your team to get started building sooner.

By using the valuable knowledge of experienced BA’s, you can create domain-specific question templates that help structure the elicitation process. This means you can send any BA of any experience level into a room with a stakeholder and feel confident they will create complete and actionable requirements.

By no longer needing to construct question templates and then copy elicited requirements to your RM tool, your team can move through the elicitation process faster. This means more time spent iterating on more accurate requirements and less time spent copy and pasting user stories that are likely to need more work.

What are the Use Cases for the FAQ module?

When we talk to our community about their use of the FAQ module, they often describe the ways in which this module has streamlined their process and made the elicitation phase of projects easier to navigate.

Even with teams who traditionally don’t use question lists, after joining our community they will tell us how much added value they see from being able to consolidate the knowledge of everyone on their team into one cohesive list.

Here are the Use Cases we have seen for the FAQ module.

USE CASE 1

My team currently gathers requirements up front and moves iteratively through our project thereafter. We currently use Excel during the requirements gathering phase, but it means that we are copying requirements to our tool of choice afterwards.

By being a team who gathers requirements up front, this provides a perfect opportunity to use a question list designed for that domain. But using Excel as a means of facilitating this question list is a recipe for a long copy-paste process later down the road. 

Copy/paste processes are generally error-prone and lengthy. It is often during these already long copy/paste processes that a team member will recognize they have missed a property of a work item that they need stakeholder input on.

In this case, using the FAQ module means you will have the question list in your Azure DevOps project already. When you ask your Stakeholder your question you will be able to answer that question in your FAQ question list and it will automatically create a requirement for you.

You can then open that requirement directly and pursue any follow up questions that you might have while you are still with your Stakeholder. This saves time and makes the elicitation process more thorough, while preventing your team from missing opportunities to get the right information at the right moment.

USE CASE 2

My team works in a compliant/regulated space and we need to ensure we are building the full set of requirements to remain compliant and auditable.

One of the best features of the FAQ module is that you can use many of our pre-built compliance-related templates to elicit requirements. Our pre-built templates have been created in partnership with many of our existing customers, as well as through partnerships with thought-leaders in these spaces.

In this case, teams with access to the FAQ module can speak to domain experts and consultants and build the question list that will help them create all the requirements necessary for compliance and regulation. Once created, these question lists can be reused in several projects and can be deployed again and again.

 

How do I use the FAQ module effectively?

The FAQ module provides incredible benefits for teams inside the elicitation phase of their project. Here are some of the ways you can use the module to facilitate project success.

 

Use the Pre-built Question List Templates

When users need a template on either Non-Functional Requirements, or on ISO topics, they can get started quickly by using one of our built-in templates. These templates already contain many of the most important questions about these topics. Users can start with a pre-built template and remove questions that are not relevant and/or add in new questions that necessary.

Build your own Question List Templates

If one of our pre-built templates does not satisfy your need, teams can easily build question lists from scratch. By starting with a blank template, your team can easily build up a comprehensive set of questions that make eliciting requirements a simple and more efficient process.

Once a question list is built it can be reused across projects to help with your elicitation phase down the road.

Build Question Lists that less experienced members of your team

By building question lists you are effectively providing guidance for any member who might be less familiar with a domain, solution, or system. These lists are then a great tool for guiding newer BA’s, or experienced BA’s from a different domain, during the elicitation phase. Teams understand that the quality of the questions we ask at the start of a project directly reflect in the quality of the requirements we elicit.

By building question lists with our FAQ module, you can ensure that you are getting the best possible requirements the first time.

Time to Read: 5 minutes

The Smart Docs Module

The Smart Docs Module

The full replacement for Microsoft Word when managing requirements

In this article we cover the features and benefits of the Smart Docs module. 
Designed to bridge the gap between document creation and requirements management, Smart Docs empowers users with documentation capabilities within Azure DevOps. This means your documents now live within your team’s project, and your team can finally benefit from a complete and central source of truth.
 

What is Smart Docs?

Smart Docs is an online document authoring system that is built directly into Azure DevOps. As part of
the Modern Requirements4DevOps Enterprise Edition, this module stands as a full replacement for
Microsoft Word when managing requirements.
 
There are many engaging ways to use Smart Docs.
The most obvious way this tool can benefit your team is by allowing you to create living requirements
documents within Azure DevOps. What do we mean by living requirements documents? If you have ever
used Microsoft Word as part of your requirements management process you have undoubtedly had to
deal with the pains of changing requirements. Changing requirements is in and of itself typically
something teams can handle, but when a requirement is in “some document” which lives “somewhere”
… teams can go mad.
 
Building living requirements documents means that you can create a Smart Doc and include your
requirements within that document. If you update a requirement from the Smart Doc interface, or make
changes to a requirement in the backlog, that requirement will be updated everywhere. This means no more hunting for documents which contain the requirements you have changed.
 
The documents we see teams using include, but are not limited to:
  • Business Requirements Documents
  • System Requirements Documents
  • Functional / Non-functional Requirements Documents

What value does Smart Docs offer?

As a purpose-driven tool, Smart Docs has been uniquely designed to tackle real-world issues our users
are currently facing, or which they have already faced in the past. By working closely with our
community, and strategically incorporating feedback, we have built a tool that offers the following
unique value proposition:
  • Documents (and their versions) created in Smart Docs are saved within your Azure DevOps
  • project.
  • Removes the need for all third-party applications and document repositories.
  • Documents are updates automatically as requirements change anywhere in Azure DevOps.
  • Documents can be versioned, compared, output, and reviewed, directly from with Azure DevOps.
 

What are the Use Cases for Smart Docs?

When we asked a group of prospects how important documentation is to their requirements management process, we found that most teams value documentation to a high degree.
 
We also found however, that teams found documentation to be the first thing to “fall by the wayside” when a project gets going.
 
When asked why this was the case, teams responded that it was the most difficult asset to maintain, and
that document creation required a large amount of time copy and pasting and the asset was often being
maintained separately from their requirements.
 
The following represents only a few Use Cases for Smart Docs.
USE CASE 1
My team currently copy/pastes requirements from Azure DevOps to Microsoft Word in order to create
documentation.
 
This takes a lot of time and is an error-prone process that we can’t rely on.
 
Using Smart Docs removes the need to copy and paste requirements to and from Microsoft Word. By
building up and maintaining your documentation in your project, you can trust that everything is always
up-to-date and ready for exporting.
USE CASE 2
My team has stopped using documentation because of the duplicate work required to create both
requirements and documents separately.
 
By using Smart Docs your team can now choose to build their requirements in Azure DevOps and drag
them into any document, or type a new requirement into their document and it will automatically show
up in your project’s backlog. As a true central source of truth model, Smart Docs will allow your team to
build everything once and use it wherever they need. Including in a document.
USE CASE 3
We only use documentation to get reviews from Stakeholders.
 
By using Smart Docs you can take advantage of the online document reviews we offer by using Smart
Docs in tandem with our Review module. If you are doing document reviews any other way you could
encounter the following obstacles.
 
  • One person is responsible for the entire review.
  • There can be multiple Stakeholders.
  • The person responsible for the review must consolidate the changes each Stakeholder would
  • like made to the document.
This produces a final document that needs to go through the approval process again.
The cycle repeats – in some cases for weeks.
 
With our document reviews, your team can collaborate and see all requested changes before a
document is altered. These changes can then be approved, and a final document created in one cycle.
 

How do I use Smart Docs?

A completed Smart Doc is an easy to navigate collection of both context sections and requirements.
Teams use Smart Docs everyday for the benefits it adds over a Microsoft Word driven process. 
Here are some of the ways your team can use Smart Docs. 
 
Make a Meta Template:
Before your team jumps head-first into Smart Docs, you will want to create a Meta Template. Meta Templates offer you the ability to construct a structure to your document. You can choose where team members can place context elements (Sections), and where they can add specific requirements in your document. This is a one-time operation and can be used with multiple documents built on the same structure.
 
Add Context to your Documents
Teams can add context to Documents by adding in a rich-text Section.
Once a Section is added to your document you can add rich text to it the same way you do in Microsoft Word.
This allows you to have free form control over the content that gets added into any given Document.
 
Create a Reusable Document Template
Many teams currently have a requirements document sitting on their Desktop which includes all the necessary elements that that document needs to include. For instance, your team might have a “BRD Template” they open which already has the Introduction, Scope, Risks, and a placeholder for Business Requirements already laid out to get started quickly. Our reusable templates offer the same ability, allowing users to quickly get started with a Document Template of their choice.
 
Add Requirements to your Documents
You can add requirements into your document in one of two different ways using Smart Docs.
  1. You can publish requirements into your Azure DevOps project simply by building onto your document. This allows you to add to your project from a document-driven workflow.
  2. You can insert requirements that are already in your project into any document.
All requirements added to documents will reflect any changes made elsewhere in the project. This means if you need to change a requirement in the backlog, those changes will already be reflected in the latest version of your document – no more need to update requirements in several places.
 
Explore Version Management
You can manage document versions easily using our built-in version management tools. Versions can be created manually or automatically depending on how you plan to use your documents. The version management tool comes complete with a Compare feature which enables you to compare any two versions of a document and see an easy to understand red-line view of the changes.
 
Have your Document Reviewed
You can send documents to Stakeholders (for free) for them to review. Using our Review module, document reviews enable all your document reviewers/approvers to collaborate in the same space. This way teams can see who has approved/rejected a work item and why. Teams can then discuss changes before any change is enacted.
 
Output Documents
Last but not least, all of the document you create in Smart Docs can be easily exported as Word, PDF, or HTML. We allow nearly limitless customization of your document when saving as Word, and provide you options to configure different attributes of a requirement to include in your report.
Time to Read: 5 minutes

Building Non-Functional Requirements Templates

Client approval of Requirements in Azure DevOps

Building Non-Functional Requirements Templates

Eliciting, authoring, and managing non-functional requirements (NFR’s) can be a daunting and time-consuming task. Most people who read the previous sentence will likely agree 

NFR creation can be a difficult task and creating non-functional requirements that are both quantifiable and measurable is an issue we’ve seen many teams struggle with.  

Building great non-functional requirements is however, worth the effort. 

Customizable Reports in Azure DevOps

Non-functional requirements provide teams with a means to gauge the success of a project, process, or system. They allow your team to capture measurable ways with which you can discuss, analyze, and evaluate the different attributes of your project. 

Because of the value NFR’s provide to a project, we often see teams engaging in long and complicated processes to create NFR’s that are barely meaningful or relevant at project end.  

Today, we’re going to change that. 

In this article we cover both the value of creating NFR’s, as well as show you how you can employ some simple tools and techniques to reduce the time required for quality NFR creation. 

Why Are Non-Functional Requirements Worth Building?

Non-functional requirements provide your team with all of the success measures of a product, project, system, process, or application. When a good non-functional requirement is created, a team will be able to not only identify if a project is successful but will also be able to easily identify how far from success a project might be.  

Great non-functional requirements can be instrumental to a project’s success in many different ways aside from being a success measure. NFR’s can help teams understand the overall goals of a project, help align the project’s outcome with business goals, and much more.  

Suffice it to say that quality NFR’s can contribute greatly to project success, and the way we evaluate that success. But that doesn’t mean they are easy to manage, elicit, or author.  

Let’s take a look at the primary technique teams use today to build better non-functional requirements faster.  

The Primary Technique for Building Better Non-Functional Requirements Faster - Templates

When building non-functional requirements, teams implement templates in order to create these work items more quickly with greater consistency.

By definition, a template is anything that serves as a model which others can copy and reuse.  

Typically, templates are created as a pre-set format for a document, file, or simply the format every NFR can be created using. Once implemented, the format provided by a template does not need to be recreated every time it is needed, and users can simply pull up a template and get started quickly.  

This leads us to the most obvious benefits of using non-functional requirements templates 

Templates save time and increase consistency! 

When teams begin building a repeatable process, they often turn to templatein order to remove the need to constantly recreate document or file formatsInstead, reusing the same pieces of a document, file, or structure as a template allows your team to reduce rework and capitalize on the benefits of greater consistency. 

While time being saved and consistency being increased are great direct benefits that templates provide, there are many not so obvious indirect benefits that templates provide as well 

The Indirect Benefits of Non-Functional Requirements Templates

The largest indirect benefit from using templates is the ability to create a simple to follow, structured approach to building files, documents, and requirements.  

By providing a templated structure, users who interact with a given file or document have an easier time identifying where to input each specific piece information, and what format that piece of information should adhere to.  

This type of direction not only improves the accuracy of the content of being worked on, but also reduces the time required for NFR creation, document reviews, and requirement approvals. This is in part since supplying a template also increases standardization and use familiarity with the asset being created. 

Templates create a two-fold level of simplicity in regard to NFR work items. Building the work item is simplified as data just needs to be input within the correct fields of the template. Additionally,  the template presents information in a more consumable fashion once the work item is built.

 As the process becomes simpler, it also becomes more approachable.  This means templates also make NFR’s and their documentation easier to create for new, or less familiar, Business Analysts. 

This discussion of templates, however, might have already started to give off a sense ambiguity. 

Are we talking about employing templates for documents?  

Are we talking about employing templates for NFR creation? 

Are we talking about employing templates that outline the properties of an NFR? 

Put simply, yes. 

A non-functional requirements template could be used in any of these areas to bolster your non-functional requirements authoring, elicitation, and management. 

 
An NFR template might be used to organize and manage NFRs, help a team with document creation, or even in the actual construction of NFR’s.  

 
If you’re looking for a simple method to construct high quality NFR’s, check out our Two Simple Steps to Creating Non-functional Requirements article found here! 

Whichever way your team uses templates to build NFR’s, you can rest assured that building non-functional requirements yields an incredible return and can be done faster and easier than ever before. 

Properly Equipping Your BA’s With Elicitation Templates

Requirements elicitation, or the gathering of requirements, has never been a simple process. It is however, something that many people encounter every day in the work place.  
 
For example, if someone asks you to build or complete something you might ask some questions. What should this thing do (functional requirement), and how should this thing be in terms of security, usability, or accessibility (non-functional requirement).  

A well-equipped business analysts (BAwill similarly ask questions that are designed to tease out the necessary functional and non-functional requirements of any project, process, or system. BA’s primarily use questions as their medium of engagement with Stakeholders. Through this type of close collaboration with Stakeholders, BAs create a forum that helps Stakeholders express what it is they want from their product.  

During a conversation with a BA, a Stakeholder will express what features they want and what their product should do (functional requirements) as well as how they want the user experience to feel (non-functional requirements).  

BA’s often employ several time-tested elicitation techniques when engaging with Stakeholders. During the elicitation process some of these techniques might include: 

  • questionnaires 
  • mind-map brainstorming  
  • use cases creation 
  • document creation and review
  • and more… 

Each of these techniques have two things in common.  

  1. First, they all are used for the elicitation of requirements.  
  1. Second, each of these techniques can capitalize on the use of templates.

Let’s think about how questionnaires can benefit from becoming, or using, templates. 

We know that to elicit the proper requirements, the proper questions must be asked.  
This is where the knowledge of a veteran BA becomes a greater asset, as they have been through the elicitation process numerous times. They have the benefit of experience and may know better which questions to ask in relation to specific industries, products, or technologies.  

This experience and knowledge can be easily captured with a non-functional requirement questionnaire template. Experienced BAs can compile well-thought-out question lists or question templates that will focus on specific functions (FRs) or system attributes (NFRs), and passively guide the team’s elicitation process even if they are not directly involved 

These questionnaire templates can then provide structure and consistency to the elicitation process, ensure the correct questions are being asked, and also reduce the likelihood of important questions being missed.   

There are plenty of examples where templates can help teams benefit from the knowledge they already have within their team. 

Let’s look at more examples of how templates are being used today in different elicitation and authoring tasks.  

Why Teams Have Historically Used Tables as Requirements Templates

Many teams continue to implement non-functional requirement templates in the form of a table to author and house requirements. 

The use of tables typically stems from the needs of users to organize and maintain their requirements in one place.  Before the use of explicit Requirements Management tools, table were used to help define naming and numbering conventionsto help track and trace requirements, as well as help by providing fields for any number of properties. 

Tables have historically worked well as templates as they are simple to organize and make it easy to manage the content within the tableTables have traditionally held the added benefit of providing an approach to export the information from table to other areas such as document creation.  

What is that export approach? Copy and paste.  

For teams that use tables as templates, the requirements typically get copy and pasted from table and are then inserted into document. Typically, the requirement is copy and pasted field by individual field into a template designed specifically for the document (another example of templating!) 

But while tables used to be a robust solution for managing requirements that contain a variety of fields, they have some significant downfalls in today’s world of explicit RM tools. 

Tables are often disconnected compilations of important information and can often be siloed off from other tools and processes. Often this results in tables becoming an extra step in your RM process, and extra asset that someone has to take ownership of to manage, update, and maintain.  

But this doesn’t have to be the case.  

With Microsoft’s Excel Team tab extension, teams can easily connect the tables they have used in the past with their Azure DevOps project. They can easily map every requirement field, property, and identifier to the Azure DevOps work item that gets created in their project. 

But how does Azure DevOps help with NFR’s? 

How Does Azure DevOps Handle Non-Functional Requirements?

First, Azure DevOps is flexible.  

Microsoft’s ALM platform allows you to easily add any types of work items your team needs to a project.  

Non-functional requirements are just one of the work item types you can add to a project.  

What is a “work item type”?  

Work items are an ADO-based authoring template for the type of requirement they represent.  

Some examples are functional requirements, transitional requirements, user stories, or even non-functional requirements. Whatever taxonomy your project requires, Azure DevOps will support it and each of the work items you create will have their own set of properties, states, and relationships which can be chosen and customized. 

With a non-functional requirement, you can configure any fields or property that your team requireto help with the management of your project. As mentioned previously, mapping the requirements you already have in a table is simple with the Microsoft Teams tab Excel extension [provide link].  

But what can you do with NFR’s once they are in Azure DevOps (ADO), and how does migrating the creation of NFR’s to ADO help your team? 

Let’s look at the tools.  

Modern Requirements4DevOps: Smart Docs – Customizable NFR Document Templates

The creation of documents depends on an organization’s policies, processes, expectations, and requirements of the stakeholders, and can even be built to house your non-functional requirements. 

Documents provide an easy way to create accountability for meeting the agreed upon requirements for a project. They afford a level of security for the stakeholders as documents can act as a checklist for agreed upon requirements, which can easily be cross-referenced to determine if stakeholders are getting what they paid for or if work was not completed. 

Another major benefit of proper documentation is that requirements often evolve throughout a project’s lifecycle. A requirement might become more clearly defined later in its life, or it might simply evolve in a manner that yields different expectation of your product.  

Queue the addition of non-functional requirement documents to your process. 

As requirements evolve, so too will the expectations for your project. This means the success indicators of your project, a.k.a. non-functional requirements, will have to be reviewed and changed.  

Using our Smart Docs module of the Modern Requirements4DevOps suite, a user can easily construct a fully versionable requirements document directly from their Azure DevOps project. This means users can easily make, and track changes to requirements from a user-friendly document interface.  

New requirements can also be easily created in your project from within a document’s interface, or you can choose to insert existing requirements directly into your document. This means you can easily drag/drop your non-functional requirements directly into an easily exportable document without leaving Azure DevOps and without a need for copy/paste.  

Let’s extend the idea of importing your existing NFR’s that live in tables into Azure DevOps, and then cover how you can turn these NFR’s into documents using Modern Requirements.  

First you import into Azure DevOps your non-functional requirements from your table using the Microsoft Team tab extension for Excel. Then you simply query all non-functional requirements and drag/drop them into your document.  

It’s that simple.  

But let’s say you now want to add structure to a document so that non-functional requirements can only be added in specific areas of the document.  

We support that too! 

There is a template designer built directly within the Smart Docs module, that helps you dictate what work item types are allowed where in your documentsThis means anyone building a document, NFR-based or otherwise, can easily adhere to the structure your template provides and create consistent documentation. 

Modern Requirements4DevOps: Smart Docs – Reusable NFR Document Templates

Reusable document templates are an asset to any team.  In fact, you likely already use these today.  

A reusable document template provides your team with an already populated document that lays out what a document should look like. This type of template helps authors easily figure out where specific information should go, and what contextual elements should make up the document created.  

Think about that Word document you already have on your Desktop. It likely already has a placeholder for things like Introductions, Scope, Goals, as well as where you should put specific requirements. This is a reusable document template.  

The main reason document templates are used is to increase efficiency and cut down on rework within the document manufacturing process.  

Luckily for teams who currently use multiple applications for their RM and documenting processes, there is a solution that can be used for both. Modern Requirements with Azure DevOps.  

The reusable document templates you create with Modern Requirements + Azure DevOps, can be configured to hold any field or property you need to show within your document. You can save any document as a reusable document template, which can automatically populate fields such as Introduction, Goals, NFR Requirements, and more. 

You can build documents in just a few clicks that can help your team get started quickly when building any sort of documentation! This means your team can benefit not only from your documents and requirements living in the same space, but also increase efficiency, create structure, increase accuracy, and create consistency within your document creation process.   

Modern Requirements4DevOps: FAQ Module – Customizable and Reusable Questionnaire Templates

Non-functional requirements are much more abstract than their functional counterparts.  

This makes them harder to draw out as you’re not simply pointing at the system and telling it what to do, instead you are asking questions about how the system should be and using NFR’s to represent that. 

As discussed earlier in this article building strong NFRs are based on asking the right questions.  

So, what if you are new to requirements management or have little experience? Where do you start? MR4DevOps addresses this situation with our comprehensive FAQ module.  

The FAQ module is a series of focused question templates directed at specific system attributes which are categorized by the three primary aspects of the product; operational, revisional, and transitional.  

Additionally, the FAQ module contains question templates for the elicitation of NFR for compliance and risk based medical device development. As users answer the questions from thtemplate, they automatically create a non-functional requirement directly into the Backlog. 

The questionnaire templates included in the FAQ module are beneficial to BAs with all levels of experience. Veteran BAs can modify existing lists by adding their own questions or create their own question list from scratchBy doing so, BA’s are able to capture their experience and knowledge of the elicitation process and pass it along to other members of the team.  

Modern Requirements4DevOps: Smart Report – Configurable Report Templates

MR4DevOps provides a great solution to one of ADO’s major oversights; the lack of an integrated reporting tool.  

When using tools like FAQ, or Smart Docs, to author and manage your non-functional requirements, Smart Report will be the tool that you use to output your requirements. Smart Report allows you to output requirements as PDF, HTML, or Microsoft Word where you can apply your own predesigned header/footer and even Table of Contents or title page as well.  

Looking to make a report for your project’s NFRs?  

The Smart Report tool is equipped with an advanced report template designer. The template designer allows you to build and save custom report templates based on work item type. This enables you to build a unique NFR template that shows whichever properties and fields of an NFR that you wish to include in the report; this information is pulled directly from the work item! 

This template can be applied to any group of selected or queried NFRs and used whenever you are required by your reporting process. The benefit of the reporting tool is it empowers you with the ability to create instant, structured, and consistent requirements reports. 

Interested in Seeing for Yourself?

Modern Requirements4DevOps offers several solutions to assist with the elicitation, authoring, and management of non-functional requirements. 

Would you like to have a closer look into designing templates with Modern Requirements or interested in finding out what other tools can improve your process? Book a product demonstration today!

Experience for yourself how our Modern Requirements toolbox can empower Microsoft’s industry leading Azure DevOps into a single application requirements management solution.

Head over to www.modernrequirements.com to learn more about our company and products.

Request a Demo!

Reduce UAT Efforts

50% Reduction in UAT efforts

Proven Time Saving

80% time saving on creating Trace Analysis

Streamline Approvals

Significant reduction in approval delays

Increase Performance

50% requirements productivity improvement

Reduce Rework

10-fold reduction in development rework

Simplify Compliance

40% reduction in compliance reporting efforts