My Reviews

Five Phases of a Review

1. In Preparation: The owner of the review will prepare all details in this phase. Only the review owner can see the review in the list of reviews. The review owner will add the following details to the review definition:

   1. Definition: All artifacts that should be reviewed. These can be model elements and diagrams from any model independent of tool. On this tab, you also define the review participants: 

      • Other review owners

      • Mandatory participants

      • Optional participants

   2. Guidance: Statements that guide the review team about what to focus on and what to look out for.

2. Open: When the review owner sets the review status to "Open", all participants are notified that they should contribute to the review now. For any user entering the review, the tab "My Contributions" is now accessible.

3. Closed: After the review owner has closed a review, no contributions can be made by the review participants. Changes to the contributions are not possible any more.
   In this phase, the review owner is able to see all contributions and compile the results of the review.

4. Results Published: After the review owner has set the review to "Results published", all participants and review owners are notified that the results of the review are now available. Everybody can now see all relevant facts of the review. Everybody except the review owners can still only see their own contributions.

5. Archived: The review is not visible for anybody any more but it can be restored.

Un-Archiving a Review

You can un-archive a review by clicking the  un-archive button in the top bar of the list of reviews under My Reviews. In the opening window you can select the review and un-archive it.

How to Configure a Review Type

You can find a description of how to configure a review type here.

How to Carry Out a Review

Step 1: The review owner creates a new review.

1. Open the list of reviews from the screen menu.

2. Click the  button to add a new review.

3. Add the review data: title, type of the review Single Review and deadline with date and time.

4. Save the new review.

5. Click on the title of the review to navigate to the review details.

Step 2: The review owner prepares the review details: artifacts, guidance and participants. Click on the  button to navigate back to the list of reviews.

1. Add the Artifacts: go to the Artifacts compartment on the Definition tab and click the  button to add all artifacts that should be included in the review.

2. Add Participants: move to the Participants compartment on the Definition tab and add:

   1. Other review owners

   2. Mandatory participants

   3. Optional participants

3. Add the Guidance: go to the Guidance tab and click the  button to add statements that guide the participants with what to focus on and what to watch out for.Every statement is typed by a Contribution Type according to the types made available via the review configuration.Every statement can have a context. If an artifact has been selected before the statement is added, then the statement always has a context by default.The context can also be added or removed by using the local menu in the row of the statement.Every statement can have one or multiple references in its text body. References can be diagrams or model elements. You can also use the lens icon right of the text field to pick a reference via the content selector; the arrow icon allows you to use the diagram on the right or a selected element inside the diagram as a reference.

4. Start the Review: start the review by selecting the appropriate action and click the  button. Smartfacts will now notify all participants that they should add their contributions to the review.

1. Check the list of artifacts and the statements on the Guidance tab. Review the artifacts by selecting them from the list of artifacts on the left side of the form or by using the navigation buttons at the top of the artifact preview. The details can be examined in the artifact preview area on the right-hand side.

2. Switch to the My Contributions tab and add your contributions by clicking . Here, the same rules for using context and references apply as previously described for the guidance statements.

3. Use the Version Diff to understand what has changed in a diagram to be reviewed. Expand the floating container in the preview area via the < button and select the Version Diff tab. Selecting a version which is older than the preview will allow you to go through the changes and examine the highlighted changes.

Step 4: The review owner compiles the results and conclusions of the review.

1. Select Close Review from the Action drop-down and click the  button to close the review. This will activate the Result tab and allow the review owner to compile the results. In this phase, the participants cannot edit, add or delete any contributions. Only the review owners are able to see and open the review in the list of reviews.

2. The review owner selects the Results tab. This tab shows all contributions from all participants. The review owner can sort the contributions by type or participant and add the findings and conclusions of this review. Again, the same rules apply for adding findings as previously described for Guidance and My Contributions.

3. Select Publish Results from the Actions drop-down and click the  button to publish the result to the team. Smartfacts notifies all participants that the results are now available.

Step 5: A modeler takes care of the changes and conclusions from the review and adds them to the model in the authoring tool.
Select Reviews in the main menu of the Smartfacts plug-in in your authoring tool. This will load the list of all reviews into the multi-purpose tab that are in the status Results Published. The modeler can navigate into the review results and open the diagrams which are impacted from the conclusions directly from the list of conclusions.

Step 6: Archive the review if the information is no longer needed.