CMS - Technical Criteria tab

Technical Criteria tab

This tab allows you to edit existing or create new Technical Criteria (i.e. operational quality indicators, designed to assess a technical area) that will govern how the analyzed source code is measured.

The tab is divided into two distinct parts:

a list of Technical Criteria
and a separate editor to configure/edit each Technical Criterion with various sub tabs

List of Technical Criteria

This section simply lists the Technical Criteria. The below example is taken from standard CAST supplied Assessment Model (see Assessment Models view):

To add a new Technical Criterion:

Click the button, a new Technical Criterion called "My Technical Criterion" will be displayed in the list.
Configure the criterion using the section below

To edit an existing Technical Criterion:

Select the Technical Criterion in the list
Edit the criterion using the section below

To remove an existing Technical Criterion:

Select the Technical Criterion in the list
Click the button - this action cannot be undone. Once removed, an item is no longer part of the Assessment Model and is no longer referenced anywhere (including in the CAST Engineering Dashboard).

Technical Criteria editor

This editor allows you to configure/edit each selected Technical Criterion - it displays the details of a Technical Criterion selected in the above list:

Name

Displays the name of your Technical Criterion.

You can edit the field by selecting it and then modifying or replacing as appropriate. Please see Naming constraints for more information.

Active

Use this option to activate/deactivate the Technical Criterion. If deactivated, it and any sub items (Quality Rules etc.) belonging to it will not be taken into account during the snapshot generation process.

This is designed to be a temporary action, i.e. it can be changed easily and quickly between snapshots.

Detached

This option indicates whether the Technical Criterion is "detached" or not. When an item is set as Detached, the link to all immediate child items (i.e. Quality Rules/Distributions/Measures) and all immediate parent items (i.e. Business Criteria) has been cut. Use the following options to activate or deactivate this:

Attach > The Attach option is targeted at new items or items that have been "detached" previously. When clicked, the CAST Management Studio will:
- one child item (i.e. Quality Rule/Distribution/Measure) to the Grade Contributors tab (see below), enabling you to define it further.
- one parent item (i.e. Business Criterion) to the Grade Impacts tab (see below), enabling you to define it further.
Detach > The Detach option will "cut" the links the current item has to:
- all its immediate child items (i.e. Quality Rules/Distributions/Measures) in the Grade Contributors tab
- all its immediate parent items (i.e. Business Criteria) in the Grade Impacts tab

Note that this option cannot be reversed using the "Attach" option as such the item will lose all links to any immediate child items.

The editor is itself divided into several sub tabs, each is explained below:

Grade Contributors tab

This tab governs the Quality Rule, Quality Distribution or Quality Measure that contribute to the selected Technical Criterion. You can use it to determine their Grade Contributions - i.e. their weight and criticality in the context of the selected Technical Criterion.

To configure this tab, Quality Rules, Quality Distributions or Quality Measures must already exist in the Quality Model > Quality Rules, Quality Distributions or Quality Measures tabs.

To add a new Grade Contributor:

Click the button, a new entry with default settings will be displayed in the list
Configure the entry using the section below

To edit an existing Grade Contributor:

Select the entry in the list
Edit the entry using the section below

To remove an existing Grade Contributor:

Select the entry in the list
Click the button

Weight

Set the weight of the Grade Contributor. The higher the value, the more weight the contribution carries.

Note

Some items have negative values that cannot be modified. These are CAST internal values.

Critical

This option allows you to threshold the grade of the parent metric using the grade of the critical child metric.

For example (when selecting the option): a critical metric that obtains a grade of 1.43 at module level would mean that the parent metric could not have a better grade than 1.43.

1) If the parent metric should have been 2.34 (without this option and using the average weighting) then with the option selected the parent metric will obtain a grade of 1.43 (in other words the parent metric cannot have a better grade than a contributing critical metric).
2) If the parent metric should have been 1.01 (without this option and using the average weighting) then with the option selected the parent metric will obtain a grade of 1.01 (in other words the parent metric cannot have a better grade than a contributing critical metric, BUT it can obtain a lower grade).

The main idea behind this option is that a very important or critical metric with a poor grade can be used as the highest level of aggregation.

Quality Rule, Distribution, or Measure

Choose the Grade Contributor you require in the drop down list.

Grade Impacts tab

This tab governs the Business Criteria that aggregate the selected Technical Criterion - in other words, which Business Criteria are using the selected Technical Criterion. You can use it to determine their Grade Impacts - i.e. their weight and criticality in the context of the selected Technical Criterion.

To configure this tab, Business Criteria must already exist in the Quality Model > Business Criteria tab.

To add a new Grade Impact:

Click the button, a new entry with default settings will be displayed in the list
Configure the entry using the section below

To edit an existing Grade Impact:

Select the entry in the list
Edit the entry using the section below

To remove an existing Grade Impact:

Select the entry in the list
Click the button

Documentation tab

This tab governs what is displayed in the CAST Engineering Dashboard with regard to the selected Technical Criterion. There are various sub tabs:

Name Translations > use this tab to define translations of the Technical Criterion name. You can configure translations for German, French and Italian - tick the check box to activate the configuration. Translations of the Technical Criterion name will be displayed in the CAST Engineering Dashboard when a CAST Engineering Dashboard user is configured to use one of the above languages.
Description > use this tab to define the description of the Technical Criterion - tick the check box to activate the description configuration. You can also define a translation of the Technical Criterion description for German, French and Italian. Translations of the Technical Criterion description will be displayed in the CAST Engineering Dashboard when a CAST Engineering Dashboard user is configured to use one of the above languages.
Rationale > use this tab to define the Technical Criterion's rationale, i.e. why it is important - tick the check box to activate the rationale configuration. You can also define a translation of the Technical Criterion rationale for German, French and Italian. Translations of the Technical Criterion rationale will be displayed in the CAST Engineering Dashboard when a CAST Engineering Dashboard user is configured to use one of the above languages.
Short Name > use this tab to define the Technical Criterion's short name, i.e. a shortened name for ease of display - tick the check box to activate the short name configuration. You can also define a translation of the Technical Criterion short name for German, French and Italian. Translations of the Technical Criterion short name will be displayed in the CAST Engineering Dashboard when a CAST Engineering Dashboard user is configured to use one of the above languages.

General tab

This tab governs the External ID of the current entity. The External ID is simply a numeric ID that uniquely identifies the entity. External IDs must be unique across all Business Criterion, Technical Criterion, Quality Rules, Quality Distributions, Quality Measures, Sizing Measures and Background Facts.

CAST recommends letting the CAST Management Studio manage the IDs for you:

Existing ID > you should only update an existing ID if you need to resolve an ID conflict:
- Click the Update URL and a dialog box will prompt you to enter the new External ID. If the chosen External ID is already assigned to another item, then the CAST Management Studio will suggest the next available increment and ask for confirmation.
- Note that for in order for the change to be taken into account in correctly in the CAST Engineering Dashboard:
  - Business and Technical Criterion > you need to consolidate any existing snapshots via either the Dashboard Service editor or the Application editor.
  - For all other entities (such as Quality Rules, Quality Measures, Sizing Measures and Background Facts) > you need to generate a snapshot again.
ID at 0 for new Business Criterion > if you leave the External IDs at 0, the CAST Management Studio will assign the IDs when the Assessment Model is synchronized with the Dashboard Service.

Note that IDs are reserved as follows:

ID above 2 000 000	Reserved for customers
ID above 1 500 000 and below 2 000 000	Reserved for field consultants
ID above 1 000 000 and below 1 500 000	reserved for built-in packages created by CAST
ID above 0 and below 1 000 000	reserved for CAST R&D and products

Notes tab

The Notes tab is simply an area that you can use to make notes or remarks about the selected item.