The requirements
The requirements tree gathers all the business requirements of the products/SUTs.Requirements can be handled directly by XStudio or retrieved from JIRA (see JIRA Requirements settings). If your requirements come from another third-party system you can configure them as generic (see Generic Requirements chapter).
Here is a typical requirements tree. It displays a number of useful information:
- the total number of requirements
- the number of requirements in each folder
- the status of each requirement (indicated by the color of the icon)
- the priority of each requirement (indicated by the
column)

Requirements are all the business requirements the SUT should be compliant with. Generally, the requirements list is the first thing we do before working on detailed specification. In a perfect world, the SUT should come with a list of requirements but this may not be the case.
Entering the requirements of the SUT is an optional task. We do encourage to completely defining the requirements though. This information is mandatory for coverage reporting.
You can add in the requirements tree the complete description of each requirement or you can decide to just point to the external requirements document(s).
It is possible to group/organize the requirements by creating a structure of folders and sub-folders hosting the requirements.
Coverage Metrics
In order to have a quantifiable follow-up of the coverage, the requirements tree includes a coverage column showing at a glance the coverage of each requirement in the tree. Coverage is also consolidated at the folder level.The coverage indicator provides the estimation of completeness in terms of specifications or tests.
Depending on the type of coverage requested (through the Coverage drop-down menu), the three will include different kinds of coverage:
By specifications
To view the coverage indicator by specifications:- in the tree, select a requirement
- click on the drop-down list Coverage
- select "By specifications" item
- the requirement coverage and the number of specifications linked to this requirement are displayed

The coverage of each requirement in the tree is directly taken from the value in its Details tab.
By default, when a requirement is being created, a 0% value will be assigned to it. As soon as one specification is linked to the current requirement, the coverage indicator of the current requirement will switch automatically to 100%. However, you can edit it manually refining the coverage value between 0% and 100%. For instance, if you think that you will need approximately 10 specifications to cover the requirement and that you already have linked 2 of them, just set the coverage to 20%.
NOTE: This feature is what will allow you to get truely reliable coverage metrics.
NOTE: If no specification is linked to the current requirement, you cannot edit manually the coverage indicator. If you try to edit it anyway, the following message will popup:

To edit the coverage indicator
- select a requirement
- click on Details menu
- set the value of Coverage by specifications (%) field
- click on submit
- the requirement coverage is modified in the tree

By tests
The requirements are indirectly covered by tests. To view the coverage by tests:- click on the drop-down list Coverage and select
- the requirement coverage and the number of tests linked to this requirement are displayed

The coverage of each requirement is calculated based on:
- its coverage by specifications,
- the coverage by tests and the weigth of each specification linked to the requirement.

The weigth of each specification being calculated from its priority using this simple mapping:
Priority | Weigth | |
Low | 1 | |
Normal | 2 | |
High | 3 |
Coverage aggregation
For each folder the coverage is calculated by aggregation, based on the coverage of its underlying objects.For instance, the coverage by specifications of a folder will be calculated using the formula:

Searching
By name
All the trees in XStudio include an indexing system allowing to search real-time an entity in the tree by his name. To experiment it by yourself just start entering some text in the Search field

To automatically select a searched item in the tree, you can move using the arrows keys within the suggestion list and validate by pressing Enter or just click on the item in the list.
By Id
The data model gives unique identifier for each entity managed by XStudio. The Ids are on the form:Template | Represents |
R_<id> | Requirement |
Ids are also available from XStudio’s GUI (in the Details tab you have an Identifier field that corresponds to <id> in the template.
To search for an entity from its Id, just type the Id in the Search Id field

Advanced and plain text search
Searching items such as requirements based on a combination of some very specific criteria can be not only very useful but extremely important to control/guarantee the quality of the products.Procedure:
- select the root node in the requirements tree
- click on the Search requirements button
- the Search requirements window is displayed
- check all the checkboxes (Status and Priority) that match your search criteria
- (opt.) type some text in the Text to search field and press Enter

Note: The results list is updated real-time and you can reach one particular bug by just clicking on it. The results table can be ordered by clicking on the column headers.
Importing data From XML
The XML format used is the same as the one used to export requirement in XML.To import requirements from XML:
- from the menu, select Tools > Import from XML
- a dialog box is displayed
- pick the Requirements option
- click on the Open button and select the file you wish to import
- the raw data area displays the content of the file
- click on Submit

Here is an example of requirement XML import file.
If you already have some requirements described in an Excel file, it will be very likely time-saving to use our Excel to XML macro. Just copy-paste your data in it and run the macro to generate the right XML format.
The root node
Tabs
Traceability Matrix
One of the major interests in using test management tool is the ability to trace what is covered and what is notTo get global requirements traceability matrix:
- switch to the Requirements tab on the left panel
- select the root folder in the tree
- on the right panel, select the Traceability Matrix tab
- the requirements tree appears including in the right column, all the specifications covering each requirement.

This traceability matrix is also present in the requirement book (that can be generated from XStudio).
Coverage
To get requirements coverage metrics:- switch to the Requirements tab on the left panel
- in the tree, select the root folder
- on the right panel, select the Coverage tab
- two tabs By specifications and By tests are displayed. Each shows some useful information such as:
- percentage of the coverage
- the list of requirements covered (at least partly) and not covered by respectively some specifications or tests


Custom fields
You can customize the requirement by creating some new custom fields that will appear in the Details tab of the requirement.Custom fields can have different types: text fields, drop-down menu, checkbox, formatted text field. They can also be marked as mandatory or not and are positionned at the index you specify.
The Custom fields tab allows you to create, edit and delete custom fields.

Create custom field
Here is the process to create a custom field for a requirement:- select the root folder in the tree
- on the right panel, click on the create custom field button
- enter the name, the type, the position, if it's mandatory or not and the default value of the custom field and submit
- the custom field will immediately appears in the panel
- the new custom field is added to all the requirements assigned with its default value


Edit custom field
Here is the process to edit a custom field for a requirement:- in the tree, select a root folder
- on the right panel, select the custom field
- click on the edit custom field button
- change the name, the type, the position, if it's mandatory or not and/or the default value of the custom field and submit
- the custom field immediately appears in the panel with new values
- the custom field is updated on all the requirements (except its value)
Delete custom field
Here is the process to delete a custom field for a requirement:- select the root folder in the tree
- on the right panel, select the custom field
- click on the delete custom field button
- confirm and submit
- the custom field immediately disappears from the panel
- the custom field is removed from all the requirements
Toolbar
Create a folder
A folder can be created only under the root node of the tree or another folder nodeHere is the process to create a new folder:
- select the root folder in the tree
- on the right panel, click on the create folder button
- enter the name of the folder and submit
- the folder immediately appears in the tree
Create a report
It may be interesting to export or to print a global report on all the requirements you have.To do so:
- select the root folder in the tree
- click on the Create report button
- select the destination folder for the report
- select the extension of the report (HTML or XML).
If you choose to generate the report in HTML you can select one report template (Type drop-down menu).
To each template corresponds one specific XSLT transform (one physical .xslt file).
By default, one XSLT is provided along with XStudio:
Complete_With_stats
- provide the file name for the report (Save as text field)
- submit
- the report is automatically opened:

TIP: Custom reports
You can customize the requirement reports.
To do that, just edit the following .xslt files located in
You can customize the requirement reports.
To do that, just edit the following .xslt files located in
<XStudio install dir>/export/xsl/
folder (or if you use the web package in /export/xsl/
of the export.zip
archive on the server):
requirementHTML_Lib.xslt
: requirement XSLT libraryrequirementHTML_Complete_with_stats.xslt
: Complete report on the requirements with statisticsrequirementHTML_Traceability_matrix.xslt
: Only the traceability matrix
Search requirements
Refer toRefer to Advanced and plain text search chapter from the searching.
The folder nodes
Tabs
Details
The folder details tab allows you to specify the name of the folder
Attachments
Attachments are handled the same way than any documents in the documents tree.Toolbar
Create a folder
A folder can be created only under the root folder node or another folder node.Here is the process to create a new folder:
- select a folder node in the tree
- on the right panel, click on the create folder button
- enter the name of the folder and submit
- the folder immediately appears in the tree
Delete a folder
You can delete a folder by just clicking this button and confirming the deletion.
WARNING: deleting a folder will delete all objects linked to this folder (i.e. underlying folders and requirements etc.)
Empty a folder
You can empty a folder by just clicking this button and confirming the emptying (all child nodes will be deleted).
WARNING: emptying a folder will delete all objects linked to its childs (i.e. underlying folders and requirements etc.)
Copy a folder
You can copy a folder by just clicking this button, selecting the destination folder and submitting;Move a folder
You can move a folder by just clicking this button, selecting the destination folder and submitting.Create a requirement
A requirement can be created only under a folder node.Here is the process to create a new requirement:
- select a folder in the tree (create one if necessary)
- on the right panel, click on the create requirement button
- a dialog box is displayed
- pick a requirement type
- if required, pick a requirement category
- enter the name of the requirement
- enter the description of the requirement. You can use the formatting tools (wiki-style) to format the text. Later, in reports this text will appear correctly formatted.
- select the status of the requirement (at creation time, you can only choose New or Ack)
- select the priority of the requirement
- click on submit
- the requirement immediately appears in the tree
Generate specifications
You can generate specifications from requirements by just clicking this button, selecting the destination folder, the default values, the options and the teams and submitting.Create a report
It may be interesting to export or to print a report on all the requirements under a specific folder.For more information check the process to generate a report chapter from the root node section.
The Requirements nodes
Tabs
Details
The Requirement Details tab allows you to specify the type, the category, the name, the description, the status, and the priority of the requirementIf some custom fields have been configured, they will appear here as well (positionned as specified).
Coverage
The Coverage tab will display the coverage details of the selected requirement in terms of SUT, specifications (if enabled) and tests.In addition, some advises are given to improve the coverage of the requirement:



Bugs
This tab shows all the bugs that have been found on the selected requirement.
Attachments
Attachments on requirement are handled similarly to the attachments on the folders.Revisions (versioning)
This tab shows all the revisions of the selected requirement.You can open a specific revision of the requirement by selecting a revision in the list and clicking on the open button.

Changes (audit log)
XStudio allows tracking any changes on a particular object.To check the history of a requirement:
- select the requirement in the tree
- open the Changes tab on the right panel
- the panel shows a table gathering all the dated changes.
On a requirement you will get a panel similar to this one:

TIP: You can edit directly the details of a user by clicking on his name in the changes table.