Metadata for Use Case Status

A type of metadata commonly associated with requirements is status. Figure D.1 shows how to extend the table of Figure B.2 in Appendix B, "Bare-Bones Project Portfolio Database and Use Case Metadata,"to include tracking the status of each use case (e.g., Draft, Proposed, Approved, Rejected, and so on).

Figure D.1. Use case metadata extended to cover status.

Report for Tracking Status of Projects in the Portfolio by Use Case Status

An effective approach for tracking the status of a project in a portfolio database is to track the sum of effort of use cases in discrete categories (e.g., draft versus implemented); this is more realistic than trying to track, for example, percent completion of each individual use case, and more accurate than simply counting the number of use cases in each category. This section describes the process for generating reports similar to those shown in Figures 8.3 and 8.4.

Figure D.2 provides an MS Access query to join data from the project portfolio database with that of the use case CM database. The fields shown are those needed to generate project portfolio progress reports. Notice how the query prefixes the project start date to project code; this field forms the X-axis of Figures 8.3 and 8.4. The results of this query are used in the pivot table of Figure D.3 to organize the data for graphing in Excel or your favorite graphing application.

Figure D.2. Query to generate data for reports like those of Figures 8.3 and 8.4. Field "Project" will appear on X-axis and is a composite of project start date prefixed to project code. Results of this query provide input to the pivot table of Figure D.3

Figure D.3. Pivot table to organize data for graphing. Results of this pivot table provide input to Excel to produce a chart like that of Figures 8.3 and 8.4.