Understanding Exchange Process Compliance

Whenever a ReqIF is added to an Exchange Process Timeline, REQIFtoolkit will perform a compliance check. The checks that are performed depend on whether the ReqIF that is added is the first ReqIF in the process or a subsequent ReqIF.

 

Adding the First ReqIF

The first ReqIF is always a customer ReqIF irrespective of whether the Exchange Process Timeline has been created for a customer or supplier role. The first ReqIF must define all attributes that will be subsequently reused by all ReqIFs exchanged throughout the process. As such, the first ReqIF is a reference for all subsequent ReqIFs and once added, cannot be deleted. It is common that the first ReqIF contains draft versions of the requirement specifications to be shared with the supplier.

 

Schema Analysis for the First ReqIF

When the first ReqIF is added, the schema is analyzed as follows.

Each SpecObjectType is scanned for the required customer and supplier attributes along with the requirement text attribute and optionally requirement type attribute. It should be noted that although the names of the required attributes are predefined in the Exchange Process, this is only a guideline and in general, any names for these attributes can be used provided they can be identified during schema analysis.

If the required attributes can be determined, then schema analysis can complete without any further user intervention.

If, for one or more SpecObjectTypes, not all required attributes can be determined, then a dialog is displayed providing options for you make appropriate mapping of existing attributes to the required attributes.

In certain cases, it is not possible to determine the required attributes for any existing SpecObjectType in which case an error message is displayed indicating that the ReqIF could not be added.

 

 

Adding Subsequent ReqIFs

After the first ReqIF has been added, all subsequent customer and supplier ReqIFs must conform to the schema defined in the first ReqIF. This is a requirement of the ReqIF standard. Although it is permitted that SpecType and AttributeDefinition longNames can change, their identifiers cannot.

 

Schema Analysis for Subsequent ReqIFs

When subsequent ReqIFs are added, the schema is analyzed differently depending on whether a customer or supplier ReqIF is being added.

For a customer ReqIF, at least the following attributes must be contained in the ReqIF:

• Requirement Text (ReqIF.Text)
• ReqIF-WF.CustomerComment
• ReqIF-WF.CustomerStatus

 

For a supplier ReqIF, at least the following attributes must be contained in the ReqIF:

• ReqIF-WF.SupplierComment
• ReqIF-WF.SupplierStatus

 

In either case, if a required attribute is missing, the ReqIF can not be added and an error message will be displayed.