When running a query it is possible to specify more than just a single value. Categories and calculations with a numeric value can be queried to exist in a range. For example querying a range for categories, or calculations that have a numeric value can be tested for the mathematical values:
Is equal to
is not equal to
Is in range
Is less than or equal to
is less than
is more than or equal to
is more than
It can also be tested against the logical
Is empty
Is not empty
or textually
Contains
Numeric Query Specifiers
Results
The following screen shot shows the result of running a query against all of the item type and re-running with a range calculation.
The top half of the display shows the calculation having 14m2 up to 22.5m2, but the query Mid Floor Area limits the return to those between 15m2 and 20m2.
It’s possible to calculate values for display, query upon or to set a category within a Cradle item. Calculations can perform basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Setup
Open Project Setup and navigate to the Item Definitions section.
Ensure you have categories set up to contain any inputs you require. In this example Width and Length of type Real have been added and also an additional category of Area also of type Real.
Select the Item Types tab
Add these categories to your item type, here it is to the Bedroom item
Choose Calculations and add a New one, here called Floor Area
Create the calculation, in this case multiplying [@CAT:Length] * [@CAT:Width] and set the output type to Real.
Optionally set a category with the resultant value, in the example this is Area
Save the schema and return to the main interface.
Run
Edit the item to include values for the categories that are inputs to the calculation.
Save the item and the calculation will be updated and in this case also set the associated category.
Related Articles
Rule Sets can be used to set values based on categories and calculations where the value is based on logic matching rather than on simply the mathematical result.
A quick way to see calculation values without changing the View or Form
When deleting items you are presented with options that relate to the scope of the operation. The scope determines whether just a single item is deleted, or an item together with its supporting definitions, or an item and the hierarchy of items linked to it by cross references.
Delete Items dialogDelete
You can delete any number of items at the same time (in WorkBench, items can be deleted one at a time through Web Access). You must have read-write access to an item to be able to delete it is available through the context menu (right-click) or on the Item menu.
When you delete the last instance of an item, that is, if there are no more versions or drafts of the item after it has been deleted, and the item isn’t in a recoverable state, Cradle then automatically removes all cross references to and from the item. This ensures that there are never any dangling cross references in the database, that is cross references to or from items that do not exist.
The Delete operation has the same scope option as the Copy operation, with the same possible values and meanings. These are:
Item – delete the item only
With Definitions – delete the item and it’s definitions
Hierarchy – delete the item and it’s hierarchy
Please note the DELETE_ITEM privilege is required to delete items in the database.
If you are worried about a user being able to delete an item, it is possible to restict this user from this privilege, this is done via the “User Setup Privileges and Rights”
It is usual to delete items when they are in a draft state. This is where the item is still in a fluid state and alterations are occurring frequently. When applying formal control (Configuration Management*) to a project, it’s normal to superseded or retire items when they are updated or no longer required. This maintains the full traceability through the project’s development. An overview of this formal control is detailed in the Cradle Help.
OK, so the tool poll was very small and not necessarily scientifically significant, but it does indicate that not everyone has seen the light. And it gives us some data to draw the nowadays ‘mandatory’ info graphic!
As a young student, I remember being introduced to ‘Office‘ applications on a special ‘visit’ to a college. We were shown a spreadsheet and a word-processor. During the hands on task we were all asked to write something. A fellow student completed their piece but couldn’t understand why their work preview looked different to everyone else’s. Whilst all the words were there they were spaced in an odd manner. They’d used the spreadsheet, and entered a word in each cell and changed the columns until the text fitted. Whilst this is laughable now, the fact is the tool still allowed the job to be completed, still allowed the brief to be met. However, the result, using the wrong tool, was not as useful. Imagine trying to cut and paste a sentence into the middle of an existing clause….
A requirements management tool is adapted to aid the flow of requirement through design to testing and end of life. Items are linked in the project’s chain, unlike a design attribute in one document, vaguely referring to some version of a requirement in another.
Would we suggest a Requirements Management tool is needed for all projects?
NO! We wouldn’t, which may sound surprising from a tool vendor. If you make cupcakes and you get an order for 24 cakes 12 blueberry and 12 chocolate we would suggest a spreadsheet with a sheet of costings and a sheet of orders is probably enough, even a diary with the order written in the day before collection day would suffice. We really don’t want you to spend your money on an inappropriate tool. Spend it on some new icing nozzles and deliver us a batch of cakes. However, if you produce tens of thousands of cupcakes for a number of different vendors and have numerous suppliers, recipes and food standards to meet, well we could conceive of a Cupcake project as a set of Requirements and associated items that needed to be managed. Supplier X changes their ingredient, which products does this affect?
Away from food, before we all feel hungry, we can confidently say that YES the more complex your product, the more components, stakeholders, standards and tests you have to mange, the more important the right tool. The easier traceability becomes, the easier changes can be made and impact calculated. Don’t try laying bricks with a spade, just because you have one in the shed. Don’t try turning precision parts with a drill and a file just because it appears to work. Don’t try and write a novel in EMACS just because it is an extremely powerful text editor . DO use the right tools for the job,
Related Articles
Seeing the light, are you viewing your projects through rose coloured spectacles? Windows and Doors do they need RM (Requirements Management)?
“So me Lads and Lasses, what brings you to 3SL’s shores today?”
“You say your project’s all headed to Davy Jones’s locker?” “What do you say you’ve been using to organise it?”
Pirate
“Parchment and a pen ye say? Well no surprise it’s not shipshape”
“A landlubber salesman wanted how much silver to give you tools for the job?” “Shiver me timbers, that’d be a right hornswaggle of a deal. Let me at him and I’ll have the scallywag keelhauled” “He’s trying to make you into shark bait, he’ll give pirates a bad name”
“Trust an old seadog like me, more of a privateer you see. Here to keep the pirate salesmen at bay. If you cross me palm with a mere four hundred coins I’ll have ye a top of the range tool for the job. What more could ye want?”
Cradle SE Pro
You’ don’t need to talk like a pirate to speak with 3SL, and we certainly won’t be giving you a bad deal. With Single user products in the £249 to £399(Sept 2017 prices) and competitive Enterprise products, there’s always a Cradle to suit your loot.
The recoverable status means that when you delete items, they are not removed from the database, but is placed into a recoverable state from where you can restore the item if you need to. The ability to recover deleted items in this way is similar to the Trash folder you may find on a mail program or Bin on an operating system home screen. When an item is restored all cross references to/from the item are also restored.
To set the recoverable option you need to set the Enable recovery of deleted items option within the Miscellaneous section in Project Setup:
Project Setup dialog
You will notice when you select this option the Deleting/recovering items …. option becomes enabled. This controls whether deleting a draft item (making it recoverable) should also modify the item’s last modifier/last modified date/time attributes. If set, this also affects those attributes when recovering an item, i.e. the date/time will reflect when the item was recovered.
Full Deletion
To really delete items from the database you can either:
View the recoverable items and delete them, or
Overwrite with a new item with the same identity as an item that is recoverable (you will receive a warning message so that you do not do this unintentionally)
You can view the recoverable items by using the Delete State element in queries:
Query Details Dialog
Tip: You can stop users from deleting items by disabling the delete item privilege in user setup. We feel that deleting an item is more of a project admin task and not for general users.
Viewing Deletions
As you can see there are three values:
Normal (the default) – selects items that are not recoverable
Recoverable – selects items that are recoverable, that is, the items that have been deleted and which can be restored
All – selects items irrespective of their recoverable status
When items are deleted (i.e. placed into a recoverable state) and change history is enabled for that item type, a comment of Item deleted is added to the change history of the recoverable item. Also, if the item is recovered a comment of Item recovered is added to the change history.
In response to the 2008 financial crisis, the UK Government has decided that all major banks must protect their personal, retail and most business banking operations from their more risky, often speculative, investment banking and international banking operations.
City Banks
Most major banks in the UK will do this by creating a new ‘ring fenced‘ banking operation that is protected from future problems in the financial markets.
Most of the UK’s major banks will effect this change in April 2018.
For 3SL, these banking changes will mean that there will be a new BIC (bank identifier code) within the IBAN (international bank account number) of all of our bank accounts. In effect, all of the IBANs for our bank accounts will change in April 2018.
It is also possible that banking changes may effect another part of our bank account numbers, called the sort code (similar to the ATA, routing number or branch number codes in other countries’ banking systems). If there is a change to our sort code, the change is likely to occur in January 2018.
If you are an international supplier to 3SL, or one of our international customers, then it is possible that our IBANs will change in January 2018, and they will definitely change in April 2018 when the new ‘ring fenced’ bank in Barclays PLC receives its new BIC.
All of these changes are being completed in advance of the UK Government’s deadline of January 2019.
Our current IBANs will remain available for 36 months after the change in April 2018.
We apologise for the inconvenience that these changes will cause to our UK and international customers and suppliers.
Updates:
6th June 2018 – Barclays have confirmed the new SWIFT BIC code is BUKBGB22. Our sort code and account numbers have stayed the same but our IBAN numbers have changed. Please contact salesdetails@threesl.com to request our IBAN numbers.
It’s back to school and college for many of our young people. As businesses it should also be a time to reflect what lesson’s we’ve learned so far this year now we’ve arrived at Q3.
Take Stock
Which of your projects are on schedule,
Which of your projects are on budget,
Which of your projects are not really being measured?
These are all questions that a good PM (Project Manager) should be able to answer quickly and succinctly. Unfortunately that’s not always the case. Dates and milestones were not clearly defined so schedule is difficult to measure. What part of the budget applies to what part of the solution is not clear so spend can not be measured accurately. How many Requirements have actually been split into System Requirements or Functional Blocks is not calculable.
Don’t Panic
Cradle’s features can offer assistance with these issues.
Cradle offers the ability to link Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) items to Microsoft® Project allowing a direct connection between the Project Plan and packages of work related to designs, functions, tests etc. in the Cradle project
If a Budget item is created in Cradle, it could be easily linked to other components of the project. They could then have a category of actual spend. Using Cradle’s calculation facility, these linked items can be totted up and shown in the parent item.
Aggregate Spend with Calculations
Dashboards are a quick visual aid showing your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) showing percentage of Requirements with System Requirements attached is a good way of monitoring progress.
Control and Relax
Move into Q4 with all the project knowledge you need to finish the year on a high.
Cradle 7.3
We trust you have all had your Security Codes for Cradle 7.3 and have successfully downloaded and installed the latest version of Cradle. If you haven’t received your Cradle-7.3 Security Code please contact the Support Department support@threesl.com
Banking Changes
There are some changes afoot for those that deal with 3SL financially.
In response to the 2008 financial crisis, the UK Government has decided that all major banks must protect their personal, retail and most business banking operations from their more risky, often speculative, investment banking and international banking operations.
Most major banks in the UK will do this by creating a new ‘ring fenced’ banking operation that is protected from future problems in the financial markets.
Most of the UK’s major banks will effect this change in April 2018.
For 3SL, these banking changes will mean that there will be a new BIC (bank identifier code) within the IBAN (international bank account number) of all of our bank accounts. In effect, all of the IBANs for our bank accounts will change in April 2018.
It is also possible that banking changes may effect another part of our bank account numbers, called the sort code (similar to the ATA, routing number or branch number codes in other countries’ banking systems). If there is a change to our sort code, the change is likely to occur in January 2018.
If you are an international supplier to 3SL, or one of our international customers, then it is possible that our IBANs will change in January 2018, and they will definitely change in April 2018 when the new ‘ring fenced’ bank in Barclays PLC receives its new BIC.
All of these changes are being completed in advance of the UK Government’s deadline of January 2019.
We believe that our current IBANs will remain available for 36 months after the change in April 2018.
We will provide more information as it becomes available. In the mean time, we apologise for the inconvenience that these changes will cause to our UK and international customers and suppliers.
The Publish Subject Items option in the Hierarchy Table can allow a user to stop items being published. This is based on a link(s) existing or not. Users need to understand it affects not only the type it is on but can affect the Subject type as well.
Hierarchy Details – Publish Subject items Options
Publish Subject Items – Always
When the option is set to ‘Always’, this means that the target items will be published in the document. It does not matter if there are linked items below or not.
Publish Subject Items – ‘Only if link exists’
When the option is set to ‘Only if link exists‘ then the item type will only get published if the item linked to the source has the correct link type and is not excluded because of a filter.
With ‘Only if link exists‘ set on the ISSUE item type and a filter:
– Requirement (Source Item)
– ISSUE (Target Item with filtering) – RISK (Target Item)
With the hierarchy set as above, if a Requirement only had 1 ISSUE linked to it and this link was removed due to filtering. This means the source item will not be published as there are no linked items to be output. If the Requirement has 2 ISSUEs linked to it and only one is removed through filtering then the source item, the single linked ISSUE and any linked RISK items will be published .
With ‘Only if link exists‘ set on the ISSUE item type and no a filter:
– Requirement
– ISSUE – RISK
With the hierarchy set as above, the Requirement will be published as well as both ISSUEs and any linked RISK items.
Publish Subject Items – ‘Only if link does not exist’
When the option is set to ‘Only if link does not exist‘ is set on a target item then the source item is only output if the target item is not linked.
With ‘Only if link does not exist‘ set on the RISK item type:
– Requirement
– RISK
Any Requirements that are not linked to a RISK or have the wrong link type will be published. Those Requirements that are linked will not be published.
Publish Subject Items – ‘Only if all links exist’
When the option is set to ‘Only if all links exist‘ then the source item will be output if all linked items have the correct link type and are not removed through filtering.
With ‘Only if all links exist ‘ set on the ISSUE item type and a filter:
– Requirement
– ISSUE (with filtering) – RISK
If the Requirement has a single ISSUE linked to it and the filtering removes this link then neither the Requirement nor the ISSUE will be published.
When a Requirement has two ISSUEs linked to it and the filtering removes one link then neither the Requirement nor the ISSUEs will be published.
With the filtering removed from the ISSUE item type then the Requirement, ISSUEs and RISK items will be published.
Publish Subject Items – ‘Only if all link do not exist’
When the option is set to ‘Only if all links do not exist‘ then the source item will be output as long as non of the linked items have the correct link type or at are removed through filtering.
With ‘Only if all links do not exist ‘ set on the ISSUE item type and a filter:
– Requirement
– RISK
If a Requirement has a RISK linked in the right way then the source item will not be output. If a Requirement has either no linked RISK items or the link type is wrong then the source item will be output.
Changing an item’s owner is really easy. Simply select the item you want to reassign to different owner and from the context menu (right click) select -> More -> Set Owner… The following dialog will then open:
Set New Owner
There are obviously some restrictions, you can’t set the owner to PROJECT and bypass configuration management, you need the right privileges within your team. This is explained in the Cradle help
You can also Set Owner Including Related Items, by navigating to the same place as Set Owner and the option below that one is for Related Items.
If you would like further information regarding Owner of an Item click here.
