a3 platform quick start guide · 2012-06-08 · open the summary tab. you can see the two...

A³ Platform

Quick Start

Last Update: Sep 07, 2011

© Copyright 2002-2011 Visual Paradigm International Ltd.

A³ Platform Quick Start

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Table of Contents Table of Contents........................................................................................................................................................... 2

Getting Started ............................................................................................................................................................... 3

Download A3 Platform ............................................................................................................................................. 3

Start-up and Installation ............................................................................................................................................ 4

Team Member (User) Management ............................................................................................................................... 6

Project Management ...................................................................................................................................................... 7

Record Customer Requirements .................................................................................................................................... 9

Realize Requirements through Tasks .......................................................................................................................... 11

Write Test Cases .......................................................................................................................................................... 13

Do Tasks ...................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Study Tasks ............................................................................................................................................................. 15

Communicate with Teammates ............................................................................................................................... 16

Done! ....................................................................................................................................................................... 17

Show me the Progress of the Development ................................................................................................................. 18

Test and Report Issues (Bugs) ..................................................................................................................................... 19

Write a Product Manual ............................................................................................................................................... 22

Create an Article ...................................................................................................................................................... 22

Export an Article to PDF ......................................................................................................................................... 23


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Getting Started

Download A3 Platform This section covers the downloading and installation of A3 Platform. If you have already downloaded it, you can

skip this section and move to the next section.

1. Open a web browser.

2. Visit the following URL, which is the download page of A3 Platform:

http://www.visual-paradigm.com/download/a3platform.jsp

3. If you haven‟t downloaded any Visual Paradigm products before, click Create a Visual Paradigm

Account to setup an account and proceed with downloading. If you have already got a Visual Paradigm

account, enter your Email and Password, and click Sign in.

4. In the Downloads page, select Send via email as URL. Do not select Do not send me the evaluation key

because you need the evaluation key to start A3 Platform.

5. Change installer option if the default O/S selection does not match with the environment where A3

Platform will be installed.

6. Click the image Try it FREE to start downloading.

Note By default, the site which is closest to your current location will be selected as the mirror site.

This is to provide you with the fastest download speed. If for any reason you want to select

another mirror site, click on the link Different download site.

http://www.visual-paradigm.com/download/a3platform.jsp


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Start-up and Installation The file downloaded is a .zip file. It contains the installation of A3 Platform in a ready-to-run state. All you need is

to unzip it and start it up. Follow the steps below to start and install A3 Platform.

1. De-compress the downloaded zip file to where you want A3 Platform be installed. This produces a folder

named a3-platform.

2. Run a3-platform\scripts\startup.bat. This will start a command console running the start-up script. Keep

the command console open. If you close it, A3 Platform will be terminated.

Note For Linux/Mac OS X, run:

a3-platform\scripts\startup.sh

3. Open a web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari).

4. Visit http://127.0.0.1:8080/ in the web browser.

5. Select Embedded DB for database. Keep the Connection URL, User and Password settings unchanged.

The database selected will be used to store the data produced/read by A3 Platform. When you use A3

Platform for production purpose, it is NOT recommended to use Embedded DB due to its limited

functionalities. We are using it in this guide because only a small amount of data will be produced.

6. Keep the files, temp and log files folder unchanged. For license key, check your Email and look for the

Email recently sent by Visual Paradigm. Copy the license content shown in the Email.

7. Paste the copied key content to the license key field in the installation page.

8. Enter the administration password. Keep the other settings unchanged.

http://127.0.0.1:8080/


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9. Click Install. The installation takes several minutes to complete. Do NOT close the web browser;

otherwise, the installation will be terminated.

10. Once the installation has passed, the Manage User screen will be displayed. Click Add User at the top left

corner.

11. Let‟s add a project director user, David. Fill in the Full name, Login Name and Password.

12. David is a project director, who has more user rights than general users and is authorized to manage

projects. Select Project Director as user type and click >.

13. Click Save.

14. We will add more users in the coming sections. For now, click Next. This brings you to the Manage

Project page.

15. Create a new project by clicking New at the top left corner of screen.

16. Enter Sample Project to be the name of project.

17. Select David to be the project manager via the drop down menu of Project Manager. Alternatively, you

can select Project Manager in the Project Members pane and click + to add David as a project manager.

18. Click Save at the bottom of the page.

19. Click Finish to complete the installation. Move on to the next section to learn how to manage users.


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Team Member (User) Management Those who take part in project(s) are referred as team members. They can manage users/projects, create/edit/delete

resources such as Requirements, Tasks or Issues, depending on their roles, given in user management. In this

section, we are going to create several users.

1. If you are continuing with the previous section, you should be at the login page. If not, open a web browser

and visit http://127.0.0.1:8080/a3-platform/login.jsp .

2. Login A3 Platform as admin (i.e. name = „admin‟). Enter the name and password. Click Login. Note that

only the „admin‟ user can create, edit and delete users.

3. This opens the administration page. Open the User tab at the top of the page.

4. Click on Add User.

5. Let‟s add a general user, Justin. Fill in the Full Name, Login Name and Password.

6. Justin is a general user who does not have any administrative rights. Hence, keep User selected for User

Type.

7. Click Save.

8. Repeat the previous steps to create another user – Susan (User as user type).

9. Create another user - Mavis. Up to now, we have five users - Administrator (Administrator), David (Project

Director), Justin (User), Mavis (User) and Susan (User).

10. Click Logout at the top right corner of the page.

http://127.0.0.1:8080/a3-platform/login.jsp


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Project Management Users who are Administrator and/or Project Director can create projects or update projects such as updating their

descriptions or members‟ assignments. In the previous section, we have shown how to create a user under the admin

account. This time, let‟s use David‟s account to update members‟ assignment in a project called Sample Project.

1. Login A3 Platform as David. Enter the name and password. Click Login.

2. Click Manage Project at the top right of the page.

3. In the previous section, we have created users, Justin and Susan. Let‟s say they both take part in the project

Sample Project. So we add them to it. In the Project Members section, select Programmer. Click +.

4. Select Justin and Mavis in the popup dialog box and click OK to confirm.


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5. Similarly, make Susan a tester of Sample Project. Select Tester. Click +. Select Susan in the popup dialog

box and click OK to confirm.

6. Remember to save. Click Save at the bottom right corner to save the configurations.


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Record Customer Requirements

We usually begin a project by collecting requirements and expectations from end user(s) of the system we are going

to develop. After that, we use A3 Platform to document and store these requirements. In this section, we will

continue to login as David (project manager) and create several Requirements in A3 Platform.

1. Click Back to A3 Platform to exit the configuration screen.

2. At the top of the page, you can find a number of tabs - Home, Process, Calendar… They give you access

to different core parts of A3 Platform. Open the Process tab.

3. Each cell in the process matrix represents an intersection of discipline (e.g. Business Modeling), phase (e.g.

1.0) and iteration (e.g. I1). As a project manager, David has rights to add/update/delete extra rows and

columns by clicking on Configure Process at the top left corner. (Note: we are not going to cover process

configuration in this guide.) Now, click on the cell that intersects Requirements, 1.0 and I1.

You can see the empty bars labeled No Requirement and No Task. They show the number of

Requirements and Tasks created and completed under this cell. We will talk in more detail later in this

guide.

4. We want to create Requirements in the selected cell. Click on the plus button inside the bar No

Requirement.

5. You are brought to the Requirements page where you can read, create and edit Requirements

Record Requirement

Create Task Plan Testing Do TaskTest and

Report Issue


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6. Enter the Name of Requirement: Support uploading video.

7. Describe the Requirement in detail by entering the Description as shown below:

- support common video formats

- disallow uploading files that are not video (e.g. a text file)

- enforce user to provide caption and description

- entering of tag is optional

8. Click Save.

9. Let‟s create one more Requirement. Click New Requirement at the top left.

10. Name the Requirement Support commenting video. Enter the following Description:

- allow anonymous commenting

- disallow the use of forbidden words

11. Click Save. Open the Summary tab. You can see the two Requirements listed there.


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Realize Requirements through Tasks

Once all the Requirements are collected and documented, we shall proceed to creating Tasks from the Requirements

emerged. In the previous section we have created a Requirement to support video uploading. In this section, we are

going to ask Justin (programmer) to design and code the upload function.

1. Click on the Requirement Support uploading video under the Summary tab to open it.

2. We want to derive Tasks from this Requirement. Click on Tasks below the Requirement to create Tasks.

3. Click New.

4. Enter the Name of the Task: Support uploading video.

5. The support of video upload function involves several parts. First, we need to design the user interface.

Then, a programmer will implement the user interface and the function. In A3 Platform, a part of work is

said to be a „turn‟. Enter the following Details first:

The user interface must contain the following components:

- Video file path

- Upload button

- Caption

- Description

Record Requirement


Report Issue


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- Tags

6. Justin, the programmer, is responsible for completing this Task. Select Justin to be the Assignee.

Note To assign a Task to multiple people, click on the + and select the people to assign.

7. When the user interface design is ready, the task should be passed to Mavis for implementing the function.

Add a new turn for this part of work. Click Add Turn next to Assignee.

8. Enter the details in the new Details field presented:

Implement the function.

- Accept the following file types and reject the rest: .mov, .flv, .avi, .mp4, .swf

- Save the uploaded file to "movies" folder

- Warn when caption or description is empty

9. Select Mavis to be the Assignee.

10. This Task is an important one. We want to complete it as soon as possible. Hence, set the priority from 2

(green) to 5 (red). Click on the green icon next to the name of the Task and select the red one.

11. Click Save. Up to now, we have one Task created under the Requirement of video upload function and the

Task involves two turns - designing user interface and implementing the function.


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Write Test Cases

To make sure that the implemented system meets the customer‟s expectation, it is important to test it before release.

The best way for quality assurance is to create Test Cases around Tasks, and to perform the Test Cases once the

Task is done. In this section, we will go through the steps to create Test Cases.

1. Click on the Task Support uploading video to open it.

2. As we want to create Test Case from this Task, click on Test Cases below the Task to create Test Cases

there.

3. Click New on the right hand side.

4. Enter the Name of the Test Case: Test the behavior of UI components in video upload page.

5. Enter the Details: This test case is designed to test the behavior of components inside the video upload

page. Note that it does not test the logic of the upload process.

6. At the center of the form you can find the Steps section. That is where you define the steps of this Test

Case. Click on the text box of step 1 and enter the first step: Test [Video filepath] field.

Record Requirement


Report Issue


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7. Press Tab to move on to the Procedures column. Enter the Procedures: Enter ‘C:\MyVideo.mov’ in the

[Video filepath] field.

8. Press Tab again to move on to the Expected Result column. Enter: ‘C:\MyVideo.mov’ can show

completely.

9. Press Enter to complete step 1 and move to step 2. Repeat the previous steps to add step 2, 3 and 4:

Steps Procedures Expected Result

2 Test [Caption] field Enter 'Sample Movie' in [Caption]

field.

'Sample Movie' can show

completely.

3 Test [Description] field Enter paragraphs that contain

more than 1000 characters in

[Description] field.

The entered description can show

completely.

4 Test [Tags] field Enter 'tag1, tag2, tag3' in [Tag]

field.

'tag1, tag2, tag3' can show

completely.

10. Remember Susan? The tester. Select Susan to be the assignee of this Test Case.

11. Click Save.

12. David has finished his tasks. Let‟s logout. Click [Logout] at the top right of A3 Platform.


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Do Tasks

David, the project manager, has created and assigned Tasks to Justin, the programmer. It‟s time for Justin to begin

his work.

Study Tasks 1. Login A3 Platform as Justin.

2. Close the welcome message. You should be at the Home page. In it, you can see in the My Tasks pane that

an urgent Tasks (priority = 5) has been assigned to Justin.

3. We usually take care of the more urgent Tasks first (if there is more than one assigned Task). Click on the

Task Support uploading to open it.

4. Study the Task and start working on it. Notice that only the part specifically for Justin is shown.

Meanwhile, that for Mavis is hidden.

Record Requirement


Report Issue


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Communicate with Teammates Team members can add feedbacks or comments to a Task, to report progress and/or to reply another‟s feedback. We

call such feedback a “follow-up”. In this section, Justin is going to ask David a question about the Task assigned by

making a “follow-up”.

1. We are reading the Task Support uploading video. Click on Followups below the Task.

2. Click on the Ask Questions tab.

3. The text area under the Ask Question tab is where we enter the content to post. Enter: What are the

maximum length of caption, description and tags?

4. Select David to be the person to ask.

5. Click Ask at the bottom right corner. A follow-up is made.

6. Logout A3 Platform.

7. Login as David. In the Home page, we can see the Task Support uploading video appear in My Tasks

pane. Click to open it.


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8. Let‟s give Justin an answer. Add a follow-up with content: 200 chars for caption and tags, 3000 chars for

description. Click Answer.


10. Login as Justin again. Open the Task Support uploading video from Home page.

Done! Once a Task is done, the assignee should set the progress of the Task to 100% and progress to Completed to

indicate its completeness. A quick way to accomplish this is to click the Complete button directly.

1. Click on Complete at the bottom right of the Add Follow-Up tab.

This adds a follow-up message. Since David has setup two turns for this Task, Justin‟s completion will

result in passing the Task to Mavis, the assignee of the next turn.


3. Login as Mavis. In the Home page, we can see the Task Support uploading video appear in My Tasks

pane. Click to open it.

4. Mavis then studies the details written by David and start implementing the function. Let‟s assume that

Mavis has now finished implementing the function. Click Complete in the Add Follow-Up tab to finish up

the Task. At this moment, the Task is entirely completed as both turns have been completed.


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Show me the Progress of the Development To ensure prompt delivery, it is important for a project manager to have a clear picture on development progress

periodically and see if things get done on schedule.


2. Login as David, the project manager.

3. Open the Process tab at the top of A3 Platform.

4. Click on the cell that intersects Requirements, 1.0 and I1.

5. In the cell, the progress bar of the Task is displayed at 100%, which means the task is complete


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Test and Report Issues (Bugs)

To make sure Task is done as expected, testing is needed. Earlier in this guide we have created a Test Case to test

the Task for developing user interface for the video upload function. The Task is now completed. It‟s time to test it.

During testing, any issue/bug found should result in the creation of Issue.


2. Login as Susan, the tester.

3. Close the welcome message. You should be at the Home page. You can see in the My Testings pane that a

Test Case has been assigned to you. Click on the test case to open it.

4. Scroll down the page. Under the Follow-Up section we have a table with several steps defined. We shall

follow the steps to perform the testing.

5. Let‟s assume that we are now performing the testing. The first step is passed. Set the result of step 1 to

Success.

Record Requirement


Report Issue


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6. Step 2 is passed, too. Set the result to Success.

7. Unfortunately, step 3 failed. Select Failure for the result of step 3.

8. Describe the problem by entering the remark: Missing scrollbar.

9. We have to pause the testing due to the failure of step 3. Post the test result by clicking Post. A follow-up is

made.

10. We need to request Justin, the programmer to fix the problem found. Click Issues on the left.

11. Click New Issue.

12. Enter the Name of the issue: Missing scrollbar for [Description] field.

13. Enter the Details: Unable to show description completely due to the absent of horizontal and vertical

scrollbar.

14. Enter the Steps: Enter a paragraph that contains over 1000 characters in [Description] field. Observe the

result.


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15. Enter the Suggested Solution: Support horizontal and vertical scrollbar.

16. Set Justin to be the assignee.

17. Click Save.


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Write a Product Manual The Article feature helps you write user‟s manual/guide to teach users how to use your system. Let‟s have a try.

Create an Article 1. Open the Articles tab.

2. The left hand side of the page shows the articles as well as their structure. Select the root node Sample

Project Articles.

3. Expand the drop down menu of New Article and select New Folder from the drop down menu.

4. In the New Folder dialog box, enter User Manual as folder name and click OK to confirm.

5. Click New Article.

6. In the New Article dialog box, enter How to upload a video? as article name and click OK to confirm.

7. This creates a blank article. Enter some text in it. You can make use of the toolbar on top of the article for

formatting.

8. Click Save.


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Export an Article to PDF 1. Expand the drop down menu of Export and select Export to PDF from the drop down menu.

2. Keep the page How to upload a video? selected in the Export to PDF window. Click Export.

3. Save the PDF file to somewhere in your machine. Open it and take a look.

a3 platform quick start guide · 2012-06-08 · open the summary tab. you can see the two...

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