Forms are groupings of related data fields used to track a specific piece of project information. For example, a project requirement typically has several important pieces of data - title, description, and reference number. TRACE represents this by using a Requirement form type, which contains fields for each piece of data that needs to be tracked.

A form type represents the default instance of a form, before information is added to it. Form types contain all the fields related to the form and are highly customizable to meet project needs.

Form type can be view as a template that serves as starting point when a new form is created.

Typical Form Elements provides a visual representation of a typical multi-tabbed form in TRACE. For instructions on creating a new form or editing an existing one, see Add/Edit Forms.

Form Organization

Forms types are either flat list or tree-structure. Examples of a flat list forms include: Action Items, Bugs, and Issues; whereas tree-structure form examples include Requirements and Tests.

Flat list form types are used for single, like items, that do not belong to a category or grouping outside of the module. Tree-structure form types are used to group related items. For example, a project may have many different categories for requirements, such as hardware and software. While these categories are very different from each other, they are still all requirements. By organizing these categories together, project users get a complete picture of the total requirements, or whatever information the PM chooses to organize in a tree structure. The default tree-structure form types use an outline numbering style.

Figure 3‑2: Tree-Type Numbering Example

Tree structures use a parent > child approach. In the example above, the Tracking requirements group is parent to the Movement Tracking and Scroll Tracking groups, which are considered child forms of the Tracking group. The requirement forms contained in these groups are considered child forms of the groups that contain them. Understanding this approach is necessary for customizing TRACE tree-type forms.

Reuse of Form Types

A powerful feature of TRACE is reuse of form type, so reusing work.

Once a form type is created by a TRACE Administrator or by a Project Administrator inside a project, the form type can be accessed, imported and used by any of the other projects in the system.

Once imported into a project, the form type can be used as it is or can be customized by changing settings (like workflow or a numbering sequence) or by adding/removing/updating fields.

The initial form type is called Base Form Type, and the changed version of itself is called Customized Form Type.

A Base Form Type:

·         can have multiple customizations over many projects, but only a single customization for a project

·         can change, for example by adding or removing fields but will not affect its customizations

A Customized Form Type acts independed of its base.