Terms Linker

What it is and why it exists

A shared glossary is one of the best tools against ambiguous requirements: every term has one agreed definition. It only helps, however, when readers can reach the definition from the place where the term is used, and when you can see which requirements depend on which term.

In DOORS Next this means creating a hyperlink in the text and a References Term link for every occurrence, by hand. For a module with hundreds of requirements and dozens of terms that is days of work, and nobody keeps it up to date. Terms Linker was created to do this automatically and consistently.

Problems it solves

• Glossary terms used in requirements without any link to their definition.
• No traceability between terms and the requirements that use them, so the impact of changing a definition is unknown.
• Hours of manual linking that are inconsistent between authors.
• Links that are only partly created after earlier manual or interrupted work.

Benefits

• Unambiguous requirements: readers open the definition of a term with one click.
• Impact analysis: References Term links show which requirements are affected when a definition changes.
• Consistency: whole words only, the longest term first (for example "brake system" before "brake"), and no links inside existing links.
• Preview before changing: the widget lists the artifacts, the terms found and how often they occur.
• Reversible: Terms Remover removes exactly what Terms Linker created.

How to use

1. In Terms, click Find all terms to use every glossary term of the project, or Pick terms to choose specific ones.
2. Open a module and click Find usage of terms in module. The widget shows the artifacts that use terms and the most used terms.
3. Review the list, then click Link terms (N) and confirm. The hyperlinks and the term links are created in batches with progress and Stop.
4. To link only some artifacts, select them in DOORS Next and click Link terms (N) in the Selection section.
5. For very large modules, Link without searching links in a single pass and reports the result at the end.

Good to know

• The artifact type of glossary terms (by default Term) and case-insensitive matching can be set in the Settings of the Terms section.
• Links are created on the base artifact, so they are visible in every module that reuses the requirement.
• Run it in a change set and keep the change report as a record of what was linked.