ARTiSAN and TNI-Software partner to ease Requirements Management for UML/SysML engineers

ARTiSAN Software Tools, a global leader for UML 2 and SysML-based real-time systems and software modelling tools, and TNI-Software, a leader in system design tools for the embedded software industry, have announced the availability of a unique, proven and easy-to-use solution for engineers who need to manage SysML requirements or implement a process that mixes UML/SysML and textual requirements. The solution is based on the integration of Reqtify, TNI-Software's requirements traceability product, and ARTiSAN Studio, ARTiSAN’s integrated suite of UML/SysML tools. This integrated solution will be distributed and supported by ARTiSAN Software Tools.

Marc Frouin, CEO of TNI-Software, stated: “Model-based approaches are now widely deployed in the embedded software industry. As a consequence, engineers are looking for an innovative approach to requirements management for mixed environments that combine requirements modelling as defined in SysML, textual requirements, and model-based implementations. They expect requirements capture, traceability, impact analysis and report generation to be seamlessly and flexibly integrated within their authoring environment. The integration of Reqtify and ARTiSAN Studio provides an innovative, industry-proven solution to the problem”.

SysML provides an industry-standard method for representing textual requirements inside a UML model. Often requirements originate in the modelling phase of a project. The ability to work with requirements “at the coalface” increases an organisation’s ability to define the right requirements earlier in the lifecycle by associating them with design elements in a rich UML/SysML modelling context.

With its repository-based architecture, ARTiSAN Studio is a perfect environment for both the communication of requirements in context and enhanced, team-based collaboration. In conjunction with Reqtify it delivers the bridging technology for importing and exporting requirements to and from external sources, including files such as Microsoft Word and Excel and databases such as Telelogic DOORS and IBM Rational RequisitePro. In addition, Reqtify can act as a “broker” in support of a full “V” model by allowing engineers to link requirements to test tools such as Mercury TestDirector and IPL Cantata++ or trace to other tools such as MathWorks’ Simulink.

“It is inherently easier to represent a textual requirement in a UML model than it is to represent a model in an external Requirements Management (RM) tool,” said Jeremy Goulding President and CEO of ARTiSAN Software Tools. “The ability to drag requirements on to diagrams and browse their relationships to other model elements is something our users have been crying out for. The SysML Requirements Profile in ARTiSAN Studio 6.1, together with Reqtify, gives our users the best of both worlds by allowing them to mix well-established processes based on textual requirements with emerging diagrammatic modelling techniques. SysML will soon be standardised and, in partnership with TNI-Software, we are delivering significant productivity advances to the synchronisation and analysis of requirements traceability within the UML/SysML community.”