System modeling

Introduction to system model

A system model is a logical presentation of the components contained in a system under test and the relationships between components. You can create a system model when you want to visualize the different components and their relationships as a diagrammatic representation.

You can create only one system model within a team space on Rational® Test Automation Server. A team space repository is required to contain the system model that you create. Before you can create a system model, you must add a team space repository. The system model that is created or edited is stored in the team space repository. All projects within a team space share the same system model. All members of a team space can create, edit, and view the system model.

After you log in to Rational® Test Automation Server, you can go to the System Model page to create a system model for your team space. Alternatively, you can go to any of the projects in your team space and create a system model from the System Model page within a project. The system model is accessible from all the projects of your team space repository.

Components in a system model

Components are the basic building blocks which are used to represent a piece of software in an application.

You can model a system by using components. You can create components that represent the type of asset or resource used by the system or application under test and can be of the following types:


Component type	Description
Database	The component type represents the database resource. You can select this component type when you want to represent a database asset or resource in the system model.
Service	The component type represents the virtual service resource. You can select this component type in the system model to represent a virtual service in the team space repository or associate a virtual service resource that is in the project repository.
UI	The component type represents the User Interface (UI) resource. You can select this component type when you want to represent the User Interface resource in the system model.

You can create multiple components to depict the different resources in the system or application under test. You can also associate virtual service resources with the components. The components in the system model can then be associated with the virtual services stored in the repositories that are configured for each of the projects.

You can create the following types of relationships between the components:

Components can be related as child components to parent components.
Components can be related as dependent components. The dependency is displayed by a line-arrow with the arrow-head pointing to the dependent component. For example, if Component A depends on Component B, then the relationship is displayed with a line-arrow from Component A to Component B and the arrow points to Component B. If Component B is also dependent on Component A, then the relationship is displayed with a line-arrow from Component B to Component A and the arrow points to Component A.

Using the system model UI

The following table lists the icons used in a system model and the icons that are displayed on the System Model page:


Icon	Description
	Represents a system model.
	Represents Suites and Tests in a repository.
	Represents a database resource. The component name is prefixed with this icon when you select the component type as database.
	Represents a service resource. The component name is prefixed with this icon when you select the component type as service.
	Represents a User Interface (UI) resource. The component name is prefixed with this icon when you select the component type as User Interface.
	Used to add components, child components, and dependent components.
	Used to search for components in the system model.
	Represents the virtual services.
	Used to publish the system model to the team space repository.
	Represents the dependency between the components.
	Represents the inherited dependencies.

You can perform the following operations when you view the model displayed on the System Model page:


Operation	Action
Pan the view of the model	Click the Pan icon . Click on the area of the model that you want to pan and move the area keeping the mouse pressed. Note: You must click the Pan icon to exit from the pan mode.
Zoom-in the view of the model	Click the Zoom-in icon . The view is enlarged or zoomed-in. Note: You can repeatedly click the Zoom-in icon to further enlarge the view.
Zoom-out the view of the model	Click the Zoom-out icon . The view is diminished or zoomed-out. Note: You can repeatedly click the Zoom-out icon to further diminish the view.
Reset the view	Click the Menu icon on the System Model page. Select Reset Zoom. The view is reset to the default view without any zoom applied. If the view was zoomed-in or zoomed-out, the view is reset to 100% of the size.
Position the model view	Click the Menu icon on the System Model page. Select from the following options: Center: Select this option to align the view of the model to the center of the page. Fit to View: Select this option to fit the view of the model in the window on the System Model page.

Tasks in system modeling

When you want to model the system under test for the first time after you install the server software and you are a licensed user in the team space, you must first add the team space repository. See Adding a repository to a team space.

After a repository is configured as the team space repository, you can work with the system model. See Tasks for working with a system model.

When you want to change, update or delete the repository, you can work with the team space repository. See Tasks for working with the team space repository.