Live trace explorer

1 . A non-transitory computer readable medium (NCRM) having stored thereon software instructions that, when executed by a set of one or more processors, are configurable to cause the set of one or more processors to perform operations that track and display dynamic requirements information of a project in substantially real-time, comprising:

monitoring hierarchical data items from a data source, the hierarchical data items comprising a hierarchy of requirement data items and a hierarchy of test case items, where ones of the hierarchy of requirement data items are validated or verified based on sets of relationships between the hierarchical data items;

responsive to detecting which ones of the hierarchical data items have changed based on database update operations, determining which ones of the sets of relationships are suspect based on the changes;

combining the hierarchical data items into groups;

determining what percentage of the hierarchical data items in each of the groups have suspect relationships;

and displaying on a display of a computing device of a user an interactive graphical user interface (GUI), comprising:

containers representing and containing respective groups of the hierarchical data items, the containers displayed in at least two sets adjacent to one another, where a first set comprises requirement containers representing the hierarchy of requirement data items and a second set comprises test containers representing the hierarchy of test case items, where for ones of the requirement containers, there is a corresponding test container in the second set;

annotated edges between pairs of the containers, ones of the annotated edges indicating a type of relationship between the hierarchical data items in a respective pair of the containers, and a percentage of the hierarchical data items in the respective pair of the containers that have the suspect relationships, wherein the percentage of suspect relationships is automatically recalculated in response to the database update operations such that the annotated edges are dynamically updated;

and a treeview control displayed within the containers that, responsive to user selection, displays a hierarchical structure of the hierarchical data items contained therein as nodes in a tree structure, wherein the treeview control enables users to expand and collapse the nodes to view subnodes and to select a specific node to view the hierarchical data items the specific node contains, and wherein the treeview control enables navigation through the hierarchical structure of the hierarchical data items to identify data items having the suspect relationships;

receiving user selection of a section in a container containing the hierarchical data items having the suspect relationships,

displaying the hierarchical data items having the suspect relationships in a detailed view;

receiving user changes to the hierarchical data items having the suspect relationships in the detailed view;

and clearing a suspect property associated with the hierarchical data items having the suspect relationships based on the received user changes.

2 . The NCRM of claim 1 , further comprising displaying the annotated edges with additional textual or graphical information summarizing a status or a quality of the sets of relationships assigned to the respective annotated edge.

3 . The NORM of claim 2 , further comprising displaying in the annotated edges another percentage of the hierarchical data items in the respective pair of the containers that have relationships that are not suspect.

4 . The NORM of claim 2 , further comprising displaying the annotated edges with two sections, where a length of a first section represents the percentage of the sets of relationships that are suspect, and a length of a second section represents the percentage of the sets of relationships that are not suspect.

5 . The NORM of claim 2 , further comprising displaying the annotated edges with a total number value of suspect relationships in the respective pair of the containers.

6 . The NORM of claim 1 , wherein the first set comprise a root requirement container and one or more child requirement containers.

7 . The NORM of claim 6 , further comprising using the annotated edges between pairs of the requirement containers to represent a satisfied-by relationship; using the annotated edges between the root requirement container and one of the test case containers to represent a validated-by relationship; and using the annotated edges between the one or more child requirement containers and another one of test case containers to represent a verified-by relationship.

8 . The NCRM of claim 1 , further comprising displaying in the requirement containers and the test containers a summary of informational details, comprising:

in the requirement containers displaying a total number of the hierarchical data items, and an indication of internal relationship coverage of different requirement hierarchical data item types; and

in the test containers, displaying a total number of test cases that are assigned to a test plan, a total number of test cases whose most recent test has passed, or a total number of visible test cases that do not have a relationship with any of the hierarchical data items in a related requirements container.

9 . The NCRM of claim 1 , further comprising displaying in the interactive GUI:

filter controls that enable the user to filter which of the groups of the hierarchical data items are displayed.

10 . A computer-implemented method for displaying an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for viewing and navigating among sets of hierarchical data items, the method performed by instructions stored in a memory of a server cluster and executed by the server cluster, the method comprising:

monitoring the hierarchical data items from a data source, the hierarchical data items comprising a hierarchy of requirement data items and a hierarchy of test case items, where ones of the hierarchy of requirement data items are validated or verified based on sets of relationships between the hierarchical data items;

responsive to detecting which ones of the hierarchical data items have changed based on database update operations, determining which ones of the sets of relationships are suspect based on the changes;

combining the hierarchical data items into groups;

determining what percentage of the hierarchical data items in each of the groups have suspect relationships;

and displaying on a display of a computing device of a user the interactive GUI, comprising:

containers representing and containing respective groups of the hierarchical data items, the containers displayed in at least two columns where a first column comprises requirement containers representing the hierarchy of requirement data items and a second column comprises test containers representing the hierarchy of test case items, where the first column of requirement containers includes a root container and one or more child containers, and for ones of the requirement containers, there is a corresponding test container in the second column;

annotated edges between pairs of the containers, each of the annotated edges indicating a type of relationship between the hierarchical data items in a respective pair of the containers and a percentage of the hierarchical data items in the respective pair of the containers that have the suspect relationships, wherein the percentage of suspect relationships is automatically recalculated in response to the database update operations such that the annotated edges are dynamically updated;

and a treeview control displayed within the containers that, responsive to user selection, displays a hierarchical structure of the hierarchical data items contained therein as nodes in a tree structure, wherein the treeview control enables users to expand and collapse the nodes to view subnodes and to select a specific node to view the hierarchical data items the specific node contains, and wherein the treeview control enables navigation through the hierarchical structure of the hierarchical data items to identify data items having the suspect relationships;

receiving user selection of a section in a container containing the hierarchical data items having the suspect relationships,

displaying the hierarchical data items having the suspect relationships in a detailed view;

receiving user changes to the hierarchical data items having the suspect relationships in the detailed view;

and clearing a suspect property associated with the hierarchical data items having the suspect relationships based on the received user changes.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising displaying the annotated edges with additional textual or graphical information summarizing a status or a quality of the sets of relationships assigned to the respective annotated edge.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising displaying in the annotated edges another percentage of the hierarchical data items in the respective pair of the containers that have relationships that are not suspect.

13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising displaying the annotated edges with two sections, where a length of a first section represents the percentage of the sets of relationships that are suspect, and a length of a second section represents the percentage of the sets of relationships that are not suspect.

14 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising displaying the annotated edges with a total number value of suspect relationships in the respective pair of the containers.

15 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the first set comprise a root requirement container and one or more child requirement containers.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising using the annotated edges between pairs of the requirement containers to represent a satisfied-by relationship; using the annotated edges between the root requirement container and one of the test case containers to represent a validated-by relationship; and using the annotated edges between the one or more child requirement containers and another one of test case containers to represent a verified-by relationship.

17 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising displaying in the requirement containers and the test containers a summary of informational details, comprising:

in the requirement containers displaying a total number of the hierarchical data items, and an indication of internal relationship coverage of different requirement hierarchical data item types; and

in the test containers, displaying a total number of test cases that are assigned to a test plan, a total number of test cases whose most recent test has passed, or a total number of visible test cases that do not have a relationship with any of the hierarchical data items in a related requirements container.

18 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising displaying in the interactive GUI:

filter controls that enable the user to filter which of the groups of the hierarchical data items are displayed.

19 . A requirements management system with tracking and display of dynamic requirements information of a project in substantially real-time, comprising:

a data source;

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory;

and a software component executed by the processor that is configured to:

monitor and retrieve hierarchical data items from the data source, the hierarchical data items comprising a hierarchy of requirement data items and a hierarchy of test case items, where ones of the requirement data items are validated or verified based on sets of relationships between the hierarchical data items;

display on a client device over a network a graphical user interface (GUI) of the sets of relationships between hierarchical data items, the GUI comprising:

a first set of requirement containers representing a plurality of development phases a project, where each of the requirement containers contain a grouping of one or more of the hierarchical data items that belong to a represented one of the plurality of development phases;

a second set of test containers representing a plurality of test phases for the project, where each of the test containers is related to one of the requirement containers and includes a grouping of one or more of the hierarchical data items that belong to a represented one of the plurality of test phases;

a first set of edges linking adjacent ones of the requirement containers;

a second set of edges linking the requirement containers to the related test containers, wherein the first set of edges and the second set of edges are displayed with an indication of a percentage of relationships assigned to that edge that are suspect, or a total number of suspect relationships assigned to that edge;

wherein the percentage of suspect relationships is automatically recalculated in response to database update operations such that the annotated edges are dynamically updated;

and a treeview control displayed within the first set of requirement containers and the second set of test containers that, responsive to user selection, displays a hierarchical structure of the data items contained therein as nodes in a tree structure, wherein the treeview control enables users to expand and collapse nodes to view subnodes and to select a specific node to view the data items the specific node contains, and wherein the treeview control enables navigation through the hierarchical structure of data items to identify data items having the suspect relationships;

receiving user selection of a section in a container containing the hierarchical data items having the suspect relationships,

displaying the hierarchical data items having the suspect relationships in a detailed view;

receiving user changes to the hierarchical data items having the suspect relationships in the detailed view;

and clearing a suspect property associated with the hierarchical data items having the suspect relationships based on the received user changes.

20 . The requirements management system of claim 19 , wherein the GUI further displays:

filter controls that enable a user to filter which of the grouping of one or more hierarchical data items in the plurality of development phases or the plurality of test phases are displayed.