Tutorials

Holarch has five guided tutorials. Each one creates a small starter project and opens a step panel beside the page. The panel checks the model as you work and ticks each step when it is done. This page lists every step as text, so you can also follow along here.

All five tutorials use the same small system: WS-1 Weather Station, a solar-powered station that measures the weather, logs the readings and reports them to a server. Each tutorial has its own starter project, so you can take them in any order.

How to use it

Start a tutorial

Start a tutorial from any of these places:

• Help → Tutorials in the rail.
• Manage Projects → Project Files ▾ → Start a Tutorial…, or Start a Tutorial when you have no projects yet.
• Search (⌘K): type tutorial and choose Start a Tutorial… or one tutorial by name.

On the Tutorials page, click Start on a tutorial card. You see the new project, named Tutorial: <name> (Weather Station), with the step panel on the right.

Follow the steps

1. Read the current step in the panel. It is the first step without a tick.
2. Click Show Me to outline the control the step needs. The outline fades after a few seconds and never blocks the page.
3. Click Go There when the step works on another page.
4. Do the step in the normal Holarch window. The step turns green as soon as the model meets it. The next step opens.
5. Click Read more for the matching Help topic or Docs section.

The panel stays docked on every page of the tutorial project. Click ‹ in its header to collapse it to a narrow strip, and click the strip to bring it back.

Resume, restart or finish

• Resume: open the tutorial project again, or click Resume on the Tutorials page. Progress is saved in the project, so it also resumes in another browser.
• Restart: click Restart… in the panel or on the card. Holarch deletes the tutorial project and creates a fresh one.
• Mark as Done: click Mark as Done in the panel when the steps are done. The card on the Tutorials page shows Done. The project stays; delete it from Manage Projects when you no longer need it.
• Close: hides the panel for this project. Click Resume on the Tutorials page to show it again.

Tutorial 1: Getting Around

Learn the parts of the Holarch window on a finished Weather Station model. The starter project has a requirements document, four functions and four components.

1. Open the model database. Click Database at the bottom of the rail. Every item in the project is listed in one table.
2. Use the inspector. Click the row Sensor Suite. In the inspector on the right, change Name to Sensor Package. The new name is saved at once. Every page shows it.
3. Search with ⌘K. Press ⌘K (or click Search in the top bar). Type Data Logger and press Enter. The item opens on its own page.
4. Create an item from search. Press ⌘K, type new req and choose New Requirement…. Enter the name Measure Wind Speed and the description The station shall measure the wind speed to within 0.5 m/s. Click Create.
5. Open a lifecycle group. Click Behavior in the rail. The overview page shows the group's pages and live numbers.
6. Open the requirements document. In the rail, open Needs & Requirements → Documents, then click Weather Station Requirements.
7. Open Help for the page. Click ? in the top bar, or press ? outside a text field. Help opens the topic for the page you are on.

Tutorial 2: Write Good Requirements

Write requirements, check them against the requirement-writing rules, and fix what the check flags. The starter project has the Weather Station components but no requirements yet.

1. Create a requirements document. Open Needs & Requirements → Documents and click + New Document. Keep the type Requirements Document, enter the name Weather Station Requirements and click Next. Keep Blank and click Finish.
2. Add four requirements. In Quick add below the document, type each line and press Enter:
   • The station shall measure air temperature and humidity quickly.
   • The station shall store measurements as needed.
   • The station should be easy to install.
   • The station shall transmit the weather report to the server at intervals of 10 minutes.
3. Run the quality check. Open Needs & Requirements → Quality. Set the scope to Document: Weather Station Requirements and click Run Quality Check. Each requirement gets a score. The Suggestions column says what to fix.
4. Split the combined requirement. The first requirement says two things, so it fails Singular. Open the document, select the first requirement and change its Description in the inspector to The station shall measure the air temperature to within 0.5 °C. Then add The station shall measure the relative humidity to within 3 %. with Quick add.
5. Replace vague wording. Change the description of the second requirement to The station shall store the measurements of the last 30 days. Change the third to The installer shall mount the station on the mast in 30 minutes. The step turns green when no requirement in the document fails Unambiguous.
6. Check again. On the Quality page, click Run Quality Check again. Every requirement now scores 67% or more. Correct and Feasible need a reviewer's judgment, and Verifiable needs a test, so 67% is the best a requirement can reach before it is reviewed and verified.

Tutorial 3: Trace Requirements

Link requirements to the functions and components that satisfy them, read the matrix, and find what is missing. The starter project has six requirements, four functions and four components. Five requirements are already linked to functions.

1. Open the Traceability Matrix. Click Go There in the step, or open Verification → Traceability Matrix. Set the rows to Entities of a class: Requirement and the columns to Entities of a class: Action. Each mark is a relationship between a requirement (row) and a function (column).
2. Find the gap. Tick Gaps only. One row is left: Report Battery Level. No function satisfies it.
3. Close the gap. Click the cell where Report Battery Level meets F4 Manage Power. Choose satisfied by if Holarch asks. The row leaves the gap list. Untick Gaps only.
4. Link a requirement to a component. Set the columns to Entities of a class: Asset. Click the cell where Store Measurements meets Data Logger and choose satisfied by.
5. Allocate functions to components. Set the rows to Entities of a class: Action and keep the columns on Asset. Link each function to the component that performs it, with performed by:
   • F1 Measure Weather → Sensor Suite
   • F2 Log Measurements → Data Logger
   • F3 Report Weather → Radio Link
   • F4 Manage Power → Power Subsystem
6. Read the trace on the item page. Press ⌘K, type Report Battery Level and press Enter. Its relationships show that F4 Manage Power satisfies it.
7. Follow the trace to the component. Click F4 Manage Power in the relationships, then click Power Subsystem under performed by. You followed the chain requirement → function → component.

Tutorial 4: Functional Analysis

Derive functions from the requirements, decompose one of them, and draw the functional flow block diagram (FFBDFunctional Flow Block Diagram A diagram of functions in the order they run, with branches, loops and parallel paths.). The starter project has a requirements document with four functional requirements and two performance requirements, and no functions yet.

1. Open Functional Analysis. Open Behavior → Functional Analysis. Set the scope to Weather Station Requirements.
2. Extract the functions. On the Functions tab, click Rule-Based Extraction…. Review the preview and click Apply. Holarch creates a top-level function with one function per functional requirement (F1–F4) and links each requirement to its function with satisfied by.
3. Rename the top-level function. Click the top-level function's name next to Top-level function:. Change its Name to Operate Weather Station.
4. Decompose a function. Open F1 Measure Weather. In the inspector, under decomposed by, click Add ▾ → Create New… and create the Action Read Sensors. Do the same for Check Readings. F1 now has two sub-functions.
5. Arrange the flow. Go back to Functional Analysis and open the Flow & FFBD tab. Click Edit as Text…, enter AND(LOOP(F1 -> F2 -> F3) | F4) and apply it. Measuring, logging and reporting now repeat in a loop while power management runs in parallel.
6. Open the FFBD. Click Open FFBD. The diagram shows the loop (LP) and the parallel branch (AND).
7. Change the layout. In the FFBD toolbar, set the orientation to Top down.
8. Open the sub-function's FFBD. Double-click F1 Measure Weather in the FFBD. Its own FFBD opens with Read Sensors and Check Readings.

Tutorial 5: From a Spreadsheet to Requirement Diagrams

Bring requirements from a spreadsheet into Holarch, check and improve them, and draw the diagrams that show their structure. The tutorial project starts empty.

1. Get the spreadsheet. Click Download Spreadsheet in the step, or download weather-station-requirements.xlsx (CSV version). To make your own in Excel or any spreadsheet app, put these columns in the first row:
   • Number: the outline number, such as 1, 1.1, 1.2.
   • Name: a short name.
   • Description: the requirement statement, such as The weather station shall ….
   • Class: Statement for a group heading (1 Sensing), Requirement for the rows under it (1.1, 1.2). Holarch reads Excel files directly; no need to save as CSV. The sample file has four weak requirements on purpose.
2. Import it. Open Needs & Requirements → Import. On the Excel / CSV tab, click Next ›, then drop the file on the page. Click Next › to the preview and click Save. Holarch matches the columns by their names and nests each requirement under its Statement by number. The requirements document opens.
3. Create a baseline. In the document, open Baselines in the left pane and click + Create Baseline. Name it Baseline 1. The baseline keeps this first version, so you can compare later changes with it.
4. Run the quality check. Open Needs & Requirements → Quality, set the scope to the document and click Run Quality Check. Click Export ▾ → Excel (.xlsx) to keep the report. Read the levels: automated checks reach at most 78%. 67% or more means the requirement passes every wording rule. Below 67%: rewrite it.
5. Fix the flagged requirements. Select each requirement below 67% in the document and change its Description in the inspector. Run the check again until each one reaches 67%. Correct and Feasible need your own review: after checking, click their ✘ to mark Yes, which raises the score to 89–100%. For example:
   • 1.2: The weather station shall measure the wind speed to the nearest 0.1 m/s.
   • 1.3: The rain gauge shall record each 0.2 mm of rainfall.
   • 2.3: The display shall show the latest readings.
   • 3.2: The weather station shall send the low-battery alert at 20 % charge.
6. Draw and export the spider diagram. Click Go There to open the spider diagram of the document. Click Export ▾ in the diagram toolbar and choose Opaque Image (PNG) or Vector Graphic (SVG).
7. Draw and export the tree diagram. Change the diagram type in the toolbar to Tree Diagram. Click Export ▾ and choose a format.
8. Add a requirement in the Database. Open Database and click + New Entity. Choose Requirement, name it Maximum Wind Speed, number it 1.2.1 and describe it as The weather station shall report wind speeds up to 150 km/h. In the inspector, under decomposes, click Add ▾ → Relate Existing Entities… and choose 1.2. Open the document: the new requirement sits under 1.2.
9. Label the requirements. Open Needs & Requirements → Requirements. Tick 1.1 to 3.2 and click Label ▾ → Functional Requirement. Then tick 1.2.1 and choose Label ▾ → Performance Requirement. One click labels every ticked requirement.
10. Move between views and projects. Open the document from Needs & Requirements → Documents, then the Database: both show the same items. Open Manage Projects, open another project, then come back to this one with the project name in the top bar.

Tutorial projects and plan limits

• Tutorial projects do not count toward the Free plan's 3 active projects.
• Each tutorial project holds up to 300 items.
• You can have one tutorial project per tutorial. Restart… replaces it.
• Tutorial projects are personal: you cannot add editors or transfer them. You can invite viewers. For example, a student can share a tutorial project with an instructor as a viewer.
• Attachments in a tutorial project count toward your storage like any other file.

Related

• Getting Started
• Requirements
• Traceability
• Functional Analysis
• Import and Export