High-Level Requirements

Warning

High-level requirements are available with Squash Premium license and Squash TM premium plugin.

Presentation

High-level requirements describe macro features or blocks of features that can be cut into standard requirements.
In Squash, they are a type of requirement that enables you to organize and manage your repository by adding a level on top of your standard requirements.
Thus, high-level requirements enable you to track the coverage and validation of larger features.

Create a High-Level Requirement

To create a high-level requirement, click on the option available in the menu of the Requirements workspace. You can create high-level requirements in a project or folder, but not in a standard requirement.

Info

You can also turn a standard requirement into a high-level requirement.

You can spot high-level requirements in the requirement tree. They are displayed in blue, whereas standard requirements are displayed in black.

Attributes

High-level requirement attributes are identical to those of standard requirements, except that the Nature field, contains the "High level" value.

Learn More

To learn more about a requirement's attributes, please visit the page Requirement Attributes

Links with Standard Requirements and Organization

Organization

The main specificity of high-level requirements is their links with standard requirements. You can link multiple standard requirements with a high-level requirement. However, you can link only one high-level requirement with a standard requirement.

Even if there is a hierarchy between high-level requirements and standard requirements, the links between these two types of requirements are not restricted by the requirement tree. These links enable you to have more flexibility in the organization of your projects:

• You can create these links via the requirement tree. In that case, all the standard requirements that are below a high-level requirement will automatically be linked to it.
• You can create links between requirements that are in different locations of the requirement tree. In that case, you can for example organize your repository by putting your high-level requirements in a specific folder or project.

Regardless of the organization you choose, high-level-requirement coverage and validation indicators take into account all the standard requirements, whether they were associated with the high-level requirement via the requirement consultation page or via the requirement tree.

Link Standard Requirements to a High-Level Requirement

On a high-level requirement's consultation page, you can find the standard requirements that are linked to it in the Standard requirements linked to this high-level requirement block, which is symbolized by the anchor .

There are multiple ways to link standard requirements with a high-level requirement:

• Select a requirement or requirement folder and drag and drop it from the library to the high-level requirement's table Standard requirements linked to this high-level requirement;
• Click on the button on the top right of the block to select the requirements you want to link from the "Requirement repository" panel, then drag and drop them;
• Create or move standard requirements under a high-level requirement in the requirement tree.

Once you have linked your standard requirements, they appear in the table. If you linked them via the requirement tree, you will not be able to delete the link as long as the standard requirement is under the high-level requirement in the requirement tree. If you did not link them via the requirement tree, you can dissociate them by clicking on the button .

Link a High-Level Requirement with a Standard Requirement

You can also link a high-level requirement with a standard requirement from a standard requirement's consultation page.

For this, a High-level requirement field is displayed in the Information block of a standard requirement. This field enables you to add, modify, and delete a link between the standard requirement you are viewing and a high-level requirement.

To link your high-level requirement with a standard requirement, click on the button , then select a high-level requirement in the requirement tree.

If the standard requirement was already linked to a high-level requirement, that high-level requirement will be replaced with the high-level requirement you just selected.

Info

If the standard requirement is linked to a high-level requirement via the tree, or if its status is "Obsolete", then you can neither modify nor delete this link.

Coverage Indicators

The Coverage indicator block of a high-level requirement gives you the coverage, redaction, verification, and validation rates for:

• the high-level requirement and all the standard requirements it is linked with;
• the high-level requirement itself;
• only the standard requirements linked to the high-level requirement.

These rates take into account standard requirements regardless of how they were linked to the high-level requirement (via the requirement tree or directly)

Learn More

To learn more about coverage indicators, please visit this page Track the Coverage and Validation of Requirements

Associated Test Cases

The block Test cases verifying this requirement of a high level requirement contains:

• the test cases directly linked to the high-level requirement;
• the test cases linked to the standard requirements linked to the high-level requirement. These test cases are grayed out and the link with the high-level requirement cannot be deleted.

Known Issues

The block Known issues of a high-level requirement contains:

• the issues associated with the test cases that directly verify the high-level requirement;
• the issues associated with the test cases that verify the standard requirements linked with the high-level requirement.

Search

In the requirement search, an option enables you to extend your search perimeter for high-level requirements. This enables you to take into account the linked standard requirements, even if they do not fit in the initial search perimeter.
Thus, if the search perimeter you have defined is a high-level requirement or a project containing high-level requirements, this option enables you to display all the linked standard requirements, even if they are located elsewhere or in another project.

This option is also available in the Campaigns workspace, when creating execution plans, by searching for test cases by associated requirements. Thus, this feature enables you to easily identify all the test cases you must execute to validate the high-level requirement, whether they verify that high-level requirement directly or indirectly.

Search criteria specific to high-level requirements are also available. They especially enable you to search for links between standard and high-level requirements.

Dashboards

In the default requirements dashboard, the following charts take into account test cases linked directly and indirectly to the high-level requirements:

• Coverage by test cases;
• Coverage by criticality;
• Test cases validation by criticality.

In the default and custom dashboards, an option enables you to extend the high-level requirements' scope. This way, the linked standard requirements are included in the dashboard, even if they do not fit in the initial perimeter.

Option enabled

Option disabled:

Turn a Standard Requirement into a High-Level Requirement and vice versa

To integrate high-level requirements to existing assets, you can transform a standard requirement into a high-level requirement. To do this, on a standard requirement's consultation page, click on the option "Convert to high-level requirement", which is available by clicking the button .

If the standard requirement has children requirements, this link is turned into a link between a high level requirement and a standard requirement.

It is also possible to turn a high-level requirement into a standard requirement with the "Convert to standard requirement" option on a high-level requirement's consultation page.

Focus

If the standard requirement has several versions, all the versions of that standard requirement will be turned into a high-level requirement. Thus, the previous version of the requirement will be considered as high-level requirement.

Warning

If a standard requirement is the child of a high-level requirement in the requirement tree, it cannot be turned into a high-level requirement. Thus, the "Convert to high-level requirement" option would not be displayed by clicking the button .

Import/Export

Import and export files take into account high-level requirements and their links with standard requirements (in a specific tab).

Importing enables to create requirements, modify requirements and turn standard requirements into high-level requirements and vice versa.

Learn more

To learn more about importing high-level requirements, visit the page Importing requirements