The document, ReqPro Tips, is an explanation I wrote for my colleagues about how to extract requirements from IBM RequisitePro into Excel format.

1. IBM’s Rational Requisite Pro and its publishing tool, SoDA, provide a convenient
way to publish requirements to Microsoft Word, but a few additional tricks are
needed to export to Excel.
Among the many tools used to manage software SoDA commands, requirements can be automatically
requirements databases, IBM’s Rational RequisitePro is published and formatted into MSWord documents.
well-known. Its rich feature-set has made it a favorite Unfortunately, SoDA does not support publishing to
among requirements analysts. However, one area where Microsoft Excel. However, ReqPro has other features
the tool requires a bit of maneuvering is in publishing which help in getting requirements into the popular
the requirements to other document formats. Excel format.
Analysts may need to publish requirements for a variety There are three basic steps to this process:
of reasons. Perhaps the organizational standards are for
the requirements to be published into typical artifacts 1. Create a “view” in ReqPro.
such as a solution requirements specification, a use case, 2. Export the view to a CSV (comma-separated
or a requirements traceability matrix. Or perhaps the variable) file.
analyst finds it easier to review requirements with the 3. Convert the CSV file into an Excel file.
target audience when they are in a format more familiar Following are instructions for how to perform each of
to that audience. these steps.
ReqPro, as it is commonly known, can be purchased
with a publishing tool called SoDA which eases this
task. By creating MSWord templates with embedded
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2. Top: An example of the
Attribute Matrix view.
Bottom: The View Properties
window where the parameters
of the view are defined.
Creating a View
A “view” in ReqPro is a
mechanism to see a selection of
the requirements in one of
several arrangements. For
example, one type of view, the
Attribute Matrix, allows the user
to see specified attributes of a
set of requirements. This type of
view is ideal for exporting to
Excel because the column-and-
row structure is so similar to an
Excel worksheet.
To create an Attribute Matrix
view, choose File, New, View
from the main menu. The View
Properties window will open
requesting the parameters for
the view. Type a name for the
view and then choose Attribute
Matrix for the View Type. In
the Row Requirement Type
field, choose the type of
requirement you wish to include
in the view.
If you wish to include only a
subset of the requirements, click
the Query button on the View
Properties window. A list of the
attributes of the selected
requirement type will be
displayed.
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3. Top: Choosing the attributes by
which to filter the content of
the view.
Bottom: Choosing the
attributes by which to filter the
content of the view.
In the Select Attributes window,
choose the attribute to filter by.
For example, if the stakeholder
needs in your ReqPro project
are for multiple releases and you
want to show only those for
release 1.0, you might filter on
the Actual Release attribute.
Click OK and the list of values
for the attribute will be
displayed.
In the Query Requirements
window, choose the values that
you would like to include.
Continuing the previous
example, you might choose
“1.0” from the list of values for
the Actual Release attribute.
Note that you can choose one or
more values for this filter. The
Sort Order radial buttons
provide control over the order in
which the results of this filter
will appear in the view.
Click OK to confirm the values.
To choose additional query
Requirements, click Add and
repeat the above steps. Click
OK to confirm the Query Row
Requirements. Click OK again
to confirm the view definition.
The new view will be displayed.
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4. Top: The resulting The columns in the resulting view
Attribute Matrix show the attributes of the requirements
view. selected for this view. If the view does
not contain the desired columns or they
Right: The are not in the desired sequence, you
Displayed can change them.
Attributes window
To add, remove, or rearrange these
showing, on the
columns, click on one of the rows and
left, attributes that
choose View, Displayed Attributes
could be displayed
from the main menu. The Displayed
and on the right,
Attributes window will open showing
the order of the all the attributes that can be displayed
attributes selected and the current display order.
to be displayed.
NOTE: There are three fields that will right of the Displayed Attributes window.
always display in any view and cannot
be changed. These are the tag (ReqPro To move an attribute up or down on the display order
assigned number for a requirement), (left or right on the view), click the attribute in the
the text, and the name. Display Order list and then click the Move Up or
Move Down button until it is positioned correctly.
Click any attribute in the Attributes to
Display list to deselect it or reselect it. Click OK to save these changes.
The resulting list of selected attributes
will appear under Display Order at the
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5. Top: The Export to CSV File
window.
Bottom: Using the Save As
window in Microsoft Excel to
convert a CSV file to Excel
format.
Exporting a View to a
CSV File
Once the view has been
arranged as you want it, you can
export it to a CSV file which is
the next step toward getting it
into the Excel spreadsheet. To
export the view to a CSV file,
double click on the view to open
it, and then choose File, Export,
Export to CSV from the main
menu.
An Export to CSV File window
will open prompting for the
destination for the file to be
created. Choose a location, then
click Save.
Converting to Excel
format
A CSV file can be converted to
the native Excel format by
simply opening the CSV file in
Excel and choosing File, Save
As, Excel Workbook from the
main menu. However, if the
content of the CSV file must be
added to an existing Excel
workbook, additional steps are
required.
To import the CSV file into the
Excel file, open both files.
Select the rows from the CSV
file that you wish to copy. Type
CTRL C to copy the selected
rows.
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6. Top: Selecting the rows in the CSV file to copy to the Excel file. Here,
rows 2-27 are selected.
The first three columns in the In the Excel file, choose the desired worksheet and select the first cell
CSV file will always be the in the first row where the copied requirements should be pasted. Note
“requirement tag” (the ReqPro that this need not be column A, row 1. However, avoid clicking in the
upper left corner of the worksheet and selecting the whole sheet. A
assigned number for the quirk of Microsoft Excel is that, when copying cells from one file to
requirement), requirement text, another, it will not allow you to paste into the new file if the whole
and requirement name, in that worksheet is selected.
order. This cannot be changed After selecting the destination cells, click CTRL V to paste the
in ReqPro. copied rows. Apply any desired formatting such as font choice, cell
borders, line wrap, etc. Save the file.
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7. Top: Rows in an Excel file. Rows 4-10 are sub-
requirements to that in row 3.
Middle: After grouping rows 4-10.
Bottom: After compressing the grouped rows.
Grouping Requirements
Once you have imported the requirements into Excel,
you may wish to group them using the Excel grouping
feature. In this way, they can be arranged similarly to the
grouping structure in ReqPro which aids navigation.
Unfortunately, there is not a way to automatically
recreate this grouping in Excel. Below are the steps to do
it manually.
Grouping Rows in Excel
To group a set of rows in an Excel worksheet a header
row must be present above the rows to be grouped. For
example, row 3 in the image at top left is the header row
for rows 4-10 as is evident by the ReqPro numbers in
column A.
Select the rows below the header row; then follow the
steps below.
• Office 2003: Choose Data, Group and Outline,
Group from the main menu.
• Office 2007: Choose Data, Group from the
main menu.
A minus sign will appear in the margin next to the
selected rows. Click the plus sign to expand the group
again.
The -/+ sign can be set to appear either above or below
the group of rows, depending on your preference. To
change this setting:
• Office 2003: Choose Data, Group and Outline,
Settings from the main menu.
• Office 2007: Choose Data, Outline from the
main menu. Click the small arrow in the lower
right corner of the Outline command group on
the menu.
A popup menu will appear. Select or deselect the option
“Summary rows below detail.”
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8. Top: Rows in an Excel file. Rows 4-10 are sub-requirements to
that in row 3.
Pasting Rows Into an Existing Group in Excel
If the destination Excel file already has row grouping applied,
replacing or adding new rows is a bit trickier.
To replace a row in an existing group of rows, copy the row from
the CSV file, then select the destination row in the Excel file and
paste over it.
To insert a new row into an existing group of rows in the Excel
file, select the row below where the new row should go and right
click. A popup menu will be displayed. Choose Insert. A blank
row will be inserted. Copy the new requirement from the CSV
file; then select the blank destination row in the Excel file and
paste.
At the time of this writing, there are rumors that IBM plans to
release a more capable publishing engine for RequisitePro.
Given the existing limitations of its current publishing solution,
this will be welcomed by the Reqpro user community. But in the
meantime, workarounds such as those described in this article
help users to extract requirements from this powerful
requirements management database.
used by permission: Masterpiece Studio
About the author: Fran McKain is a senior
requirements analyst in the retail sector. She loves
to push the boundaries of what RequisitePro can do.
[Type text] 8 August, 2009