Cradle from 3SL, is a tool to load, create, inter-link and publish information for all stages in a systems engineering project using agile, iterative or phase-based approaches and using any process.
When a query is run in WorkBench, the tool will return a list of the items matching the criteria specified.
As a Cradle database can contain any number of items of information a query could find 0 to 1 million items.
Items in Cradle Database
The time taken to find so many items could be excessive. Therefore, queries find and return items from the database in blocks. The default size of a block is 1000 items but can be extended to 8000 items in UI Control user preferences:
Retrieve Item Options in User Prefs
This means that when you run a query it will return at most N items.
Navigating between Blocks of Data
When the block is shown in the WorkBench UI, it is preceded by Previous… and followed by Next….
If you select these, then the query is re-run to find the next block or the previous block of items.
Query showing Previous optionQuery showing Next option
In this example, clicking the Next… option will retrieve the next set of items in the query:
Query showing items
Selecting Previous… again will return you to the previous block of items.
Reporting Items
If you are creating a report or publishing a document using a query, it is likely that you would NOT wish to be restricted by blocks of items.
Reports allow you to specify:
Selected items – items highlighted in the query
All items in this set – the block of N items
All matching items in database – the totality of items matching the query criteria
In certain situations, it may be necessary to stop a baseline from being closed if a condition has not been met. For example, if items have been registered in the baseline but items that are linked have not been.
Having this option set will ensure that all relevant data will appear in your completed baseline.
Open and Closed Baselines
Setting the Baseline Item Integrity Check
To set this option, navigate to the Configuration Management options in Project Setup and tick the Baseline Item Integrity Check option:
Baseline Option in Project Setup
You also have the ability to set a rule for the direction of the link/dependence:
All items linked to baselined items are also baselined (default option)
Baselined items’ source items are also baselined
Baselined items’ destination items are also baselined
Exclusions
You can also exclude item types or link types from being bound by this setting:
Excluded item and link types
Failing the Check
If any of the checks fail, an error message will be shown with a report showing the items that caused the close baseline operation to fail:
Our Cradle “cloud” services (SaaS – Software as a Service) provide access to 3SL’s Requirements Management and Systems Engineering tool – Cradle using remote servers. This means there is no need to install the software on your company systems.
Cradle Cloud Service
They are also a cost effective way to get up and running with Cradle.
3SL offers a choice of Cradle-Enterprise systems delivered as Cradle cloud services from a choice of servers, in a range of fixed term subscriptions, each accessed by your choice of concurrent users.
The Cradle service provides Cradle directly to the users from a remote environment managed by 3SL:
In a matter of days from order
With no software installations
Needing no, or little, work from your IT
What is the Cradle Service?
The Cradle service:
Is a self-contained set of Cradle and third party software tools
Is integrated with your filesystems and printers
Is secure and resilient
Needs no administration by your organisation
If you wish, is linked to your corporate email
If you wish, is run on servers exclusive to you
The Cradle service delivers the latest version of Cradle, and related applications directly to user’s desktops. Cradle and the other tools appear in windows like any other application that a user runs locally. But Cradle, and your databases, all run on remote servers inside the Cradle service.
You can have any number of databases. They, and the data inside them, are private to you. 3SL will manage the service so you can be assured that it is always available.
You can choose a lower cost shared service or a dedicated service. In the shared service, you share servers at 3SL in the UK with other subscribers, keeping privacy of your data and databases. In a dedicated service, 3SL creates a virtual private cloud (VPC) of servers using a third party hosting provider that are exclusive to you and located in any geographic area that you choose.
All databases are backed up automatically with a 3 hour RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and an 8 hour RPO ( Recovery Point Objective). Backups are held for 8 months.
Cradle Subscriptions
The Cradle system types available as a subscription are:
Cradle Enterprise-RM Basic – requirements management including the ability to generate metrics and dashboards
Cradle Enterprise-RM Pro – requirements management including the ability to generate metrics, dashboards and produce quality documentation
Cradle Enterprise-SE Basic – systems engineering including systems modelling and the ability to generate metrics and dashboards
Cradle Enterprise-SE Pro – systems engineering including system modelling and the ability to generate metrics, dashboards and produce quality documentation
The Cradle subscriptions can be packaged into simple fixed term durations ranging from one month to sixty months. This allows you to budget and ensure cover for a whole host of proejcts. You will be free to finish or renew as your project needs at the end of the term.
Cradle SaaS in a Nutshell
Choose from a range of Cradle Enterprise systems to provide the capabilities you need
Choose a shared or dedicated host environment
Specify the number of users that you need to have access to the environment
Specify how long you want the service for
Work in any number of databases
Upload and download data and results easily from your local IT systems
Print directly to your local devices if needed
On-boarding service to help you get started
Off-boarding service to preserve your work before your subscription ends
Add extra terms and change who can access the service at any time
For pricing of the Cradle subscriptions please visit our website.
All Cradle users have a read-write access mode by default, and as such can create and modify information in their project databases, subject only to Cradle’s security and access control mechanisms such as privileges, classifications, skills, user types and so on.
There are no dedicated read-only user accounts in Cradle. However, there is a mechanism to specify which user accounts should be read-only and which should be read-write for a specified project.
This mechanism might be useful in protecting the consumption of your read-write connections.
Cradle User Control File (UCF)
Cradle contains a cradle_users file that is stored in the admin directory of your Cradle installation. This file allows your System Administrator to control the access mode that a user has for specified projects.
The file allows you to specify the Cradle username, the project code and the access mode separated by a space or tab characters:
Cradle-Username Project-Code Access-Mode
where:
Cradle-Username – is the Cradle username to be controlled, in uppercase or lowercase, and at most 40 characters
Project-Code – the project in which the username is defined, specified in uppercase or lowercase, and at most 4 characters
Access-Mode – the access mode to be assigned whenever anyone logs in to the specified project with the specified username, as:
R – the username is always to be read-only
W – the username is always to be read-write
Example cds_users file
The entries in this file override any -ro or -rw command line options to Cradle tools.
This file is empty by default, so all users would have the ability to connect to databases read-write unless specified otherwise.
Welcome to the latest newsletter from 3SL that provides a mixture of news and technical information about us, and our requirements management and systems engineering tool “Cradle”. We would especially like to welcome everyone who has purchased Cradle in the past month and those who are currently evaluating Cradle for their projects and processes.
We hope that we, and Cradle, can deliver real and measurable benefits to all of the exciting development projects that we see every day through your regular contacts with our support team. If you have any problems, please do not hesitate to contact 3SL support here.
Showing Cell Titles in Views
Sometimes when displaying a nested view the cell titles take up a lot of space on the screen.
Displaying Cell Titles
Within the View Details dialog you have the option to choose whether you want to display the cell titles:
Displaying cell titles in views
As you can see you can choose to either:
Show the cell titles
Hide the cell titles
Show the cell titles only when the view is top-level
You can change the visibility of any of the component views that are being used to show linked items. In practice, most people either hide everything or show everything.
For further information on views please see our online help page.
Help with Cradle-7.7
Following on from our recent Cradle-7.7 release, if you are not already a customer and would like more information about Cradle, you can download the software and a free evaluation licence. You can find this on our website, or you can request a webinar. If you are a customer and would like to upgrade, please contact 3SL for a Security Code and for any assistance you may require with the upgrade.
Upcoming Training Courses
We still have places available on our September Risk Management course. Learn how to identify, analyse, evaluate, treat and monitor the risks associated with activities or events within your business. This course is designed for project team leaders or managers who administer and manage risks.
To book a place on one of our online courses please click here!
Cradle offers two packages Cradle Software as SaaS and Cradle Training and Consultancy.
Software
The software package includes Cradle licences, a pre-defined schema and a comprehensive support package. This can be used in both unclassified (IL0) and OFFICIAL (certified IL3) deployments and covers the following elements:
Agile Collaboration
Application Lifecycle Development
Application Lifecycle Management
Agile Software Development
Agile Software Management
Business Analysis
Business Process Modelling
Defect Tracking
Enterprise Architecture
Integrated Risk Management
Integrated Test Management
Lifecycle Management
MBE Model Based Engineering
MBSE Model Based Software Engineering
MBSE Model Based Systems Engineering
Requirements and Testing
Requirements Engineering
Requirements Management
Risk Assessment
Risk Compliance
Risk Management
SysML Modelling
Systems Engineering
Test Execution
Test Management
Test Planning
UML Modelling
Cradle Training/Consultancy
Consultancy
Administration Training
Fundamentals Training
Advanced Lifecycle Training
Prices start from as little as £50.00 per user per month. Including email and phone support and full documentation included. Optional onsite support and training is available. This can be supplied on Windows® or Linux®.
Customisation
A wide range of user customisation is available including:
Items’ (attributes, links and properties)
Display of chosen data and layout through queries, views, forms,
Processing data to give graphs, reports, documents, metrics, KPIs/dashboards, process
CM (Configuration Management) system workflows
UI (User Interface) layout and content
Authentication and access control
Details
For details, see here:
Software
Training/Consultancy
or search for 3SL Cradle. For an overview of Cradle, see our video here: We look forward to helping you achieve success on your future projects, or migrating existing ‘manual’ or disparate works into a fully encompassed solution.
We are pleased to announce the release of Cradle-7.7 which is available now for download from the downloadssection of the 3SL website. This is the latest version of Cradle.
Cradle-7.7 splash screen
3SL customers with active maintenance have been sent an e-mail notification, and details of which of their enhancement requests and bug reports are included in this new release. This is a significant Cradle release that increments the Cradle minor version number from 7.6 to 7.7. This means that the Security Codes for Cradle-7.6 or earlier will NOT work with this new Cradle-7.7 release. Therefore, if you want to upgrade to Cradle-7.7 then you MUST contact 3SL Support and request a Cradle-7.7 Security Code since your existing Cradle-7.6 Security Codes will NOT work with this new release.
New Cradle-7.7 Capabilities
This release contains a range of new capabilities, including:
Snapshots
Metrics added to graphs
New header option in views
New reports
Annular dial type added to Dashboards
Precision option added to Dashboards
Ability to test email setup from User Preferences
These new capabilities are shown below. For further information please refer to the Release Notes.
Snapshots
A snapshot is a read-only copy of all the information in a Cradle database at a specific point in time that can be viewed, in isolation, at any point in the future.
Snapshots can be created and selected from the Project tab in WorkBench:
Snapshot options in WorkBench
Snapshots can also be created via the command line using c_prj.
When a user selects a snapshot, their access to information, cross references and definitions are determined by the contents of the user’s profile in the database, regardless of whether or not the user has a profile in the current snapshot and regardless of the contents of that user profile (if any) in the snapshot.
Cradle-7.7 includes a new type of graph which shows metric coverage or count of items with different categories set or unset. This is called a metric graph. An example is shown below:
Example Metrics Graph in Cradle
Header Option in Views
A new Header option is now available in the dialog. This provides a way of showing grouped and coloured headings when output. Example output is shown below:
Example output from WorkBench showing a coloured header
New Reports
A new Baseline Summary List report has been included in this release. This outputs each baseline on it’s own row in a table.
The Baseline Summary report has been renamed to Baseline Summary Compact.
A Sort by filter has also been added to both the Baseline List report, Baseline Summary List report and the Baseline Summary Compact report. This provides the option to sort by the baseline name, when the baseline was opened or when the baseline was closed.
Report Details Dialog showing Sort by options
Annular Dial Type in Dashboards
A new dial type has been added to dashboards – Annular %.
Annular Option in Dashboards
This is an annular percentage of a single dashboard bandset within which the KPI resides:
Example Annular dashboard
Precision Option in Dashboards
A Precision option has also been added to dashboards. This sets the count of numbers displayed around a dashboard dial:
Precision Option in dashboards
Test Email Setup
The setup of emails can now be tested from User Preferences by selecting the new Test Email button:
User Preferences showing Test Email button
Pressing the Test Mail button produces the Mail Test dialog where you choose an email recipient and whether you want to send the test email in plain text.
Mail Test dialog
Please note the only user names shown in the Recipient drop down are Cradle users in the project who have an email address defined in their User Profile.
Download
You must contact 3SL for new Security Code(s) for Cradle-7.7. Cradle-7.7 will not accept Security Codes from Cradle-7.6 or any previous release.
Cradle clients (WorkBench, Web Access, Document Publisher for instance) and server (Cradle CDS) versions cannot be mixed. Therefore, you must upgrade all Cradle installations to 7.7.
Cradle-7.7 databases do not have the same format as Cradle-7.6 databases. Hence the Cradle-7.7 release includes a database converter for the transition from Cradle-7.6 to Cradle-7.7. Full details are available in the 7.7 release notes, and updated manuals in addition you can always contact support@threesl.com .
Single User Products
Please note that there are no maintenance services for single-user Cradle products. Therefore, if you have purchased any of the single-user Cradle-7.6 products:
Cradle-RM Desktop
Cradle-RM Pro
Cradle-SE Desktop
Cradle-SE Pro
then you will not be able to request a new Cradle-7.7 Security Code. If you want to update your single-user Cradle system to the new Cradle-7.7 release, then you must buy the new Cradle-7.7 release.
Help with Cradle-7.7
In conclusion, we’re pleased with the new capabilities in Cradle-7.7 most importantly we hope you will benefit by upgrading. If you are not already a customer and would like more information about Cradle, you can download the software and a free evaluation licence, find more on our website, or request a webinar. If you would like to read some independent reviews feel free to use your favourite search engine or take a look at Capterra.
Upcoming Training Courses
We still have places available on our August Requirements Managementtraining course. The dates are 15th to 18th August. This is a great opportunity for small teams, or a couple of new team members to get started with RM and Cradle. Don’t worry if you can’t make the August RM course, we are holding another one in November.
In September we then have our Risk Management course. Learn how to identify, analyse, evaluate, treat and monitor the risks associated with activities or events within your business. This course is designed for project team leaders or managers who administer and manage risks.
To book a place on one of our online courses please click here!
With the release of 7.7 coming very soon, we thought we’d test Cradle on additional platforms.
So here’s Cradle 7.7 running on a Steamdeck, in Desktop mode.
As SteamOS is based on Arch Linux, our 64 bit Linux version can be installed.
Both the CDS and WorkBench are running on this very capable device. A keyboard and mouse may work better than the on screen keyboard.
If you install the service manager (systemd script) then the Cradle Database Server (CDS) will start on boot up of the Steamdeck, so you might not want to do that if its primarily used for Steam. However, once started the CDS will stay running in the background when you switch to Gaming Mode. If you have others connecting to your CDS then they can continue to work while you improve your hand-eye coordination in your favourite game.
Although Steamdeck is not an officially supported platform, you can see Cradle does indeed run on additional platforms
We were interested to be provided with a SpeedUpSolRTM unit. We thought we’d test the claims and share them with you. The device works by “capturing ambient light waves and amplifying productivity software enhancements” We suspect a little has been lost in translation, however the blurb goes on to explain that generally workers want to complete their work more quickly in the daylight saving summer months (in our case anything after GMT turns to BST), in order to make the best of the rest of the day. By capturing the increased sunlight during these hours it can help speed up a your work by using their proprietary algorithm to assist and second guess the text or keys you are about to press. Once finished employees will have completed their schedule ahead of time and will be able to leave earlier benefiting their well-being.
The Unit
Comprising a “bubble matrix silicon cell panel” which uses lenses based on omnidirectional fly eyes, maximum sunlight is captured in unit around 150mm long. The interface is s standard USB connector. The drivers download automatically, as it supports plug and play.
Testing
We connected the SpeedUpSolRTM to a standard desktop and installed a copy of Cradle. We then closed the blinds on the window to simulate a darker time of day. The unit is balanced atop the monitor facing the window, to achieve maximum exposure. The staff member was then asked to simulate entering data for the requirement they were working on. You’ll see their usual speed of typing. We then opened the blinds to allow maximum light onto the SpeedUpSolRTM. This allowed the software to start its word guessing and action assisting operations. We think you’ll concur, there is a marked increase in speed.
Software
The software bundled with the SpeedUpSolRTM includes an average light level monitor with a rolling 7 day count. It suggests that this can be used to co-inside with maximum productivity bursts for employees. It is also noted that by monitoring the peaks, in winter months people who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) may be able to time their coffee breaks outside to maximise benefit.
The tantalising power of quantum computing offers unbounded possibilities to solve some of the biggest problems in computing today. So far the need to keep the Quantum Bits (QBits / QuBits) stable has proved the barrier to quantum computers being widely deployed. Laboratory conditions with super low temperatures and large magnetic fields have allowed the theory to be proved, but limit the practical implementation.
Theory
Our current silicon computers rely on simple 0 and 1 storage of bits to represent the data. These ons and offs are electrically, or optically stored and they are either one or the other. QuBits however are neither a 0 or a 1 until they are actually read. They exist in a ‘probability cloud’ between the true or false. The interaction of all the QuBits changes the probability that the bit will yield a 0 or 1 answer when read. This allows a massive scaling of parallel computation considering multiple avenues of a problem simultaneously.
New Possibilities
The possibility that standard silicon based binary computers could be made to operate in a quantum state has raised many exciting possibilities. Studies at the Loe D’a Buncum institute hypothesises that a stated proof; that Black is White, or True is False, can be ‘proved’ either way. This uncertainty, they are terming an Argú (derived from the Latin argumentum “a logical argument; evidence, ground, support, proof”). They expect this will be widely applied to Silicon Based Computing Platforms (SBCP).
Theory
To paraphrase their research observe the following:
Black is White
It can be seen that the composition of mixed primary light colours Red, Green and Blue gives White light. However, the same composite calculation for pigment Cyan, Yellow and Magenta gives Black. The Argú in this case is stated as :
Three primary colours mixed = Black = White.
This provides a state that can not be seen as a definitive answer (because there is a missing element – are we talking light or pigment). The key to unlocking and providing the definitive answer is being termed the Clú. This is the missing piece of information that will allow the quantum measurement to be extracted.
Standard Computers
Because the concept itself, the Argú is simple to represent in standard boolean logic on a silicon computer, there is no need for any special cooling or magnetic field to retain the uncertainty. The Clú can also be held as a standard concept. The rest of the problem continues to be expressed in multiple Argús but not ‘finalised’. At the point where every possible Argú has been raised for a particular problem, the Clú is combined using standard logic simplified with De Morgan’s laws resulting in the final result.
Summary
Both QuBit and SBCP computing offer the gateway to many possibilities, but it should also be remembered that those without a Clú should not attempt to Argú.
