Quick Start Guide

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What You Will Achieve

By the end of this guide, you will open a Risksheet document, navigate the grid interface, create your first risk items, enter severity and occurrence ratings, see the RPN calculated automatically, and save your work back to Polarion. This guide covers the shortest path from opening Risksheet to productive use.

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Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure the following:

• Risksheet is installed on your Polarion server (see Installation)
• You have a valid Risksheet license (production or evaluation)
• Your user account is assigned as an active user in the Risksheet user group
• You have access to a Polarion project with at least one Risksheet-enabled document or template
• You are using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge (recommended browsers)

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Step 1: Open a Risksheet Document

Navigate to your Polarion project and open a LiveDoc document that has Risksheet configured. The Risksheet grid loads automatically within the document page, replacing the standard document view with an interactive spreadsheet-like interface. You should see a grid with column headers across the top and work item rows below. The leftmost area contains row headers showing work item identifiers.

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Step 2: Understand the Grid Layout

The Risksheet interface consists of these key areas:

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Step 3: Navigate the Grid

Click any cell to select it. Use the following shortcuts to move efficiently: See Keyboard Shortcuts for the complete shortcut reference.

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Step 4: Edit a Cell Value

1. Click a cell to select it (the cell border highlights)
2. Press F2 to enter edit mode, or simply start typing to replace the value
3. For dropdown fields (severity, occurrence, detection ratings), a dropdown menu appears with available options
4. Press Enter to confirm the edit and move to the next row
5. Press Escape to cancel the edit and revert to the previous value

After entering severity, occurrence, and detection ratings, the RPN column automatically calculates the Risk Priority Number using the configured formula. For a standard FMEA: Severity x Occurrence x Detection = RPN.

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Step 5: Create a New Risk Item

Right-click any cell to open the context menu. Select the option to create a new risk item (the menu label depends on your configuration — typically “New Risk” or “New Failure Mode”). A new row appears in the grid with a temporary ID (shown with an asterisk prefix, such as *NEW-1). The temporary ID is replaced with a permanent Polarion work item ID when you save. Fill in the columns:

1. Title / Failure Mode — Type a descriptive name (e.g., “Brake fluid contamination”)
2. Severity — Select a severity rating from the dropdown
3. Occurrence — Select an occurrence rating
4. Detection — Select a detection rating
5. The RPN calculates automatically

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Step 6: Save Your Changes

Click the Save button in the toolbar. Risksheet saves all modified work items back to Polarion as a single transaction:

• New items receive permanent Polarion work item IDs (temporary *NEW-1 becomes RISK-001)
• Modified cells update the corresponding Polarion fields
• Link relationships between risk items and tasks are established
• If any part of the save fails, all changes are rolled back to prevent partial updates

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Step 7: Use the Context Menu

Right-click any cell to access additional actions:

• Open Row Item — View the full work item in Polarion’s standard editor
• Open Linked Item — Navigate to a linked work item from a link column
• New [Type] — Create a new risk item or task at a specific level
• Remove Row Item — Remove the selected row from the grid
• Freeze Pane — Lock columns to the left for easier horizontal scrolling
• Unfreeze Pane — Release locked columns

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Step 8: Clear a Cell vs. Remove a Row

This is an important distinction to learn early:

• Keyboard Delete key: Clears the content of the selected cell only. The row and work item stay intact.
• Context menu “Remove Row Item”: Removes the entire row and deletes or unlinks the underlying work item.

Always use the keyboard Delete key when you want to erase a single value without removing the row.

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Typical Grid After Data Entry

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Next Steps

Now that you can navigate, edit, and save in Risksheet, explore these topics to deepen your understanding:

• Understanding the Interface — Detailed guide to all interface elements
• Basic Configuration — Learn how to customize your Risksheet layout
• Create Your First Risksheet — Set up a new Risksheet document from scratch
• How-To Guides — Task-oriented guides for specific workflows
• Concepts — Understand the data model, configuration system, and traceability
• Reference — Complete property and API documentation