Requirements Diagramming with Gliffy and Polarion ALM
What if your project stakeholders could collaborate with each other just by drawing diagrams online with Gliffy and editing traceability between the diagrams and the software requirement specifications in Polarion? This is exactly the thrust of i4ware – Requirements Diagramming, a new commercial plugin for Polarion® ALM 2010™ from i4ware Software. ( It can also be used by Polarion® Requirements™ and Track & Wiki™ users on a Polarion ALM installation.)
The plug-in is available for download on Polarion POP and the developers have an online video presentation available.
Key Features
1. Multiple diagram types. Types are based on the software development diagram types that i4ware found can be created with Gliffy. Just choose the type from the file folder’s tree list and the data view then changes the Work Items for the diagram based on Work Item type enumeration ID’s. Diagram types are static and users can’t add more. However, i4ware plans to add more types based on user input gathered via the plug-in’s feedback form.
2. Diagrams stored as work items – by diagram type, in Polarion ALM’s Subversion repository, with full history , backup, plus linking capabilities. You can rename and create new diagrams with this data view and drag and drop them to requirement attachments and link them to requirements on tree view. When a diagram is selected – the rename button is enabled and vice versa. We are planning to create many more usable features for this data view and waiting for customer feedback to make it better. There is also a possibility to filter diagram Work Items.
3. Modules support – you can select software requirement specifications modules that you are working on. The selection tree changes modules on tree view and list view to link diagrams or attach them to a requirement. (You can only add and edit modules using Polarion ALM or Polarion Requirements). In upcoming releases we plan to make this simpler, with a drop-down to attach diagram image files as Requirements module attachments.
4. Attachments. Using the View Attachments list you can see additional information about Requirements from the list view. As mentioned in section 2 – diagrams can be attached to these requirements (using drag and drop or by selecting a diagram and a requirements and clicking the Attach button).
5. Diagram-to-Requirement Traceability. You can edit traceability between diagrams andsoftware requirements, test cases, tasks etc. in a selected Module. You select the diagram and requirement, etc. from a tree grid and then click a linking button. In a later release we plan to make this possible in a traceability matrix view mode.
More in the works
In upcoming releases i4ware plans many new features. We would welcome your feedback, which can help us prioritize and implement what’s most important to users of i4ware Requirements Diagramming. As mentioned, the plugin has a built-in feedback feature. Please feel free to use it, or to contact us via the i4ware website.
Additional information:
See the plug-in on Polarion POP and the online video presentation.
About the AuthorMatti Kiviharju is Product Owner and a developer at i4ware Software which specializes in application lifecycle management product and services.
