PREEvision – Requirements Engineering and Management for E/E Systems
PREEvision offers an integrated approach for requirements engineering that extends far beyond the functions of a classic tool for requirements management.
In the model-based engineering environment of PREEvision, requirements are development artifacts themselves and therefore can seamlessly interact with all other development artifacts in the model.
Furthermore, not only the requirements but all development artifacts can serve as requirements.
In a Nutshell
VIDEO HIGHLIGHT
Integrated Requirements Engineering With PREEvision
An Explainer Video
As E/E systems grow more important to mobility, complexity increases. Requirements engineers are continually challenged by accelerated time to market, variants and a multitude of functionalities, which are based on software and electronics. As we all know requirements are not stable, because information often and quickly becomes obsolete, redundant or inconsistent. So how can we deal with this situation? PREEvision is a way to master this challenge!
Advantages
- Tables and rich text editor with graphical support for recording requirements
- Early validation and consistency testing
- High initial quality of requirements
- Version and life cycle management
- Use case diagrams
- Linkability and traceability
- Change marking and history
- Import and export via ReqIF or Excel
- Easy report creation
- File attachments management
- Integration with test engineering and test management
- Support for reviews and votings
The Use Case
PREEvision offers a variety of tools to define and get a common understanding of the functionality as well as the expected quality of the product to develop. These product goals can be substantiated in customer perceivable features, in use cases and in requirements.
For classic requirements management, requirements and customer features can be developed and specified with formatted text, graphics or tables. Requirements are hierarchically structured and classified using a unique ID. Additional attributes can be freely defined. With use case diagrams the functionality and the benefits of the system can be modeled from the perspective of a user.
With the integrated approach of PREEvision, requirements do not exist separately: They may be reused or associated with other requirements and development artifacts. Requirements can be mapped to one another or with other development artifacts or integrated as placeholders.
Functions / Features
Create and Edit Requirements
PREEvision provides a variety of editors and views you can use to create and edit requirements. The requirements editor contains all information, such as the description, attribute values, linkings to other artifacts, etc. This information can be easily entered and edited there.
The most important attributes for requirements are already predefined and made available to users in PREEvision. Additional attributes can be defined by the users themselves and provided with corresponding data types, such as enumerations, date, or text.
PREEvision provides a large number of functions for developing and managing requirements after creation. The “Lock & Commit” concept prevents data collisions during multi-user operation, and a freely designable life-cycle model creates transparency in the development process. Requirements are also subject to versioning. As a result, requirement development remains traceable over time.
Manage Requirements
PREEvision provides numerous functions to develop and manage requirements:
Life cycles in PREEvision enable the management of work flows that are tuned to the specific organization. The life cycle management describes the different states that requirements pass through.
The current status of a requirement is marked by color. Thus it can be recognized at a glance which requirements are new, which are being implemented, and which are already approved.
Artifacts can be created and managed within a team as well as organization-wide. A rights system ensures controlled access to data.
In addition, a lock and commit concept prevents data collisions and data loss. This enables secure creation and conflict-free editing of requirements.
The reuse of requirements, functions, or other E/E artifacts accelerates development and makes complexity manageable. Repeated creation of similar or identical artifacts is avoided.
Requirements are subject to versioning in PREEvision. The versioning is carried out through check-in and check-out functions. As a result, the requirement development remains traceable over time.
The different versions and manifestations of requirements can be used at different points in the architecture model. So that changes to a requirement can always be traced over time, a comparison view and a change history are available.
Create and Manage Dependencies
Requirements do not stand alone in PREEvision: they can be reused or linked with other requirements and development artifacts. Various tools are available to obtain an overview of the dependencies:
- Product goal links
- Mappings
- Placeholders
Check and Validate Requirements
With the help of metrics and rules, a variety of validators and checking mechanisms are available in PREEvision for checking requirements and their attributes. Identified violations are graphically marked and described in detail in the information area. PREEvision holds a large number of predefined tests that can be expanded with user-specific checks. In PREEvision the implementation of requirements is ensured through the integrated test engineering and test management.
Reviews and Votings
To facilitate cooperation within the organization and with suppliers, PREEvision offers mechanisms to review and vote on requirements and other model artifacts.
Agreement projects can be set up by selecting model artifacts on the one hand and stakeholders that review the respective artifacts on the other hand. A dedicated chat view allows discussions amongst the participants of the agreement project.
Reports and Specifications
Reports such as system specifications are automatically generated based on templates, whose structure, contents, and layout can be user-defined. The templates can contain static contents such as headers and footers. In addition, via placeholders dynamic contents can be integrated, such as tables, diagrams, data of any E/E architecture artifacts, and results of complex model queries.
Placeholders are replaced by current model data when the report is created. The placeholder principle ensures that current values are always taken into consideration in the dynamic development process. Links in the PREEvision model from the created document are possible.
Exchange Requirements
PREEvision provides various interfaces for exchanging requirements in ReqIF and Excel formats. An import enables the exchange of requirements but also the initial migration from a predecessor system.
Existing requirements can be updated by import to prevent redundant data in the model. And not only requirements but also customer functions and test artifacts can be imported.
Know-How
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHT
Integrated Requirements Management
The next stage in the evolution of requirements engineering
Electric-electronic architectures (E/E) in vehicles – What’s the first thing that comes to mind? Complex systems which have been becoming increasingly more extensive for years? Where an ever-greater number of components build upon one another and are dependent on one another? Where the individual components are subject to continual adjustment and expansion during development? And that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to maintain an overview for recognizing correlations and dependencies? If so, you should take a closer look at the advantages of an integrated development tool and requirement management.
Translation of a German publication in "Elektronik automotive", issue 11/2017
VIDEO HIGHLIGHT
Model-Based E/E Development with PREEvision
From Architecture Design to Series Production
PREEvision offers a comprehensive modeling language to describe all aspects of e/e systems. All engineers involved in the development process find tailored diagrams and editors for their work. And all in one integrated tool. System designers develop vehicle functions and derive corresponding requirements, for example.
Playing time 4:00 minutes, published 3/2018
