Support for needactivity

[twodrops]

It will be nice to have a new directive needactivity similar to needsequence which generates UML activity diagrams for need objects.

needsequence is good at depicting the sequence of messages flowing from one need object to another, how their messages are exchanged in what time-order.

needactivity is needed for depicting the control flowing from one need to another, especially to depict some conditional structures and loops, swimlanes etc.

The new needuml can achieve these results but there are usecases where the diagrams need to be auto-generated like with a needflow.

[twodrops]

An immediate usecase for this would be process-as-code where process artifacts can be modelled in sphinx-needs and activity diagrams autogenerated similar to the ones with tools like Methodpark Stages (https://www.methodpark.de/stages.html).

For example,

Needs Input

.. wp:: Example Workproduct 1 
   :id: WP_001
   :responsibility: RO_001, RO_002

   This is an example workproduct.

.. role:: Creator
   :id: RO_001

   Creates the workproduct.

.. role:: Approver
   :id: RO_002

   Approves the workproduct.


.. activity:: Create Workproduct
   :id: AC_001
   :responsibility: RO_001


.. activity:: Approve Workproduct
   :id: AC_002
   :responsibility: RO_002

Example Activity Diagram

The example is not complete and does not contain:

• all information within needs required to generate the diagram
• all information expected in the diagram

I am hoping to refine this issue with details soon.

[danwos]

@twodrops: How was the status with this feature request? I think we wanted to close it, as it can be done by needuml. Please reopen, if I'm wrong.

[twodrops]

I am re-opening this as this feature will be needed in 2023 and all features cannot be handled with needuml. Will add details soon.