Creating a component to establish a work context

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A component represents physical or logical pieces of the system your team is working on. For example, you might create a component for a physical piece called Handheld Meter Reader or you might create a component for a logical piece called Meter Reader Server. Each of these components might have several configurations (streams and baselines).

A configuration of a component selects versions of the artifacts of that component. Example: After you create the Handheld Meter Reader component, go to a stream of that component. Then, add a quality management (QM) configuration (stream or baseline) that contains the latest version of a test case. Then, add a requirements management (RM) stream that contains the latest version of a requirement.

Because the local configurations are part of the same global configuration, the correct test case version links to the correct requirement version.

Before you begin

  • You must have permission to create components.
  • To create tags for components, you must have permission to create and rename tags. By default, configuration leads and administrators have both of these permissions.
  • Be familiar with how the artifacts in your product or system will be partitioned.

About this task

Components form the unit of configuration management. By understanding how the artifacts in the product or system are partitioned, you can create the appropriate components so that teams can work with configurations (streams and baselines) of components efficiently. Reuse, different development and delivery schedules, and usability and performance are also considerations for defining components. For details about these considerations, see Configuration management in IBM® Engineering Lifecycle Management: Defining your component strategy on Jazz.net.

Procedure

  1. From the Home menu, click Global Configuration Management and select a project. In the Global Configuration Management (GCM) application, click Browse and create components.
  2. On the Browse Components page, click Create Component.
  3. Enter a component name. Add tags and a description, if you need them.
    1. Optional: To refine write access to the component, select a team area from the Team Area menu. To assign a team area, you must have the "Create components" permission in the current project area or selected team area.

      If you don't see the team area that you need, ask your project area administrator to create it. For details about team areas, see Team areas in the GCM application. You can also assign a team area after you create the component.

    2. Optional: In the Tags field, enter a tag value and then click the Tab or Space key.
      This defines the tag value for you and other team members to set for components and global configurations. Use tags to search for components and global configurations, to filter when you add a global configuration, and to group and organize them in the Browse Components view. For details about organizing components by using tags, see the related task.
      Important: Avoid adding classified or sensitive data such as customer names and proprietary information to tags. If you must scrub the GCM data later, tags are removed from the artifacts you scrub, but the tags are not permanently deleted from the repository. See Deleting sensitive data.
    After you create a component, a baseline is created automatically, and an initial stream is created from the baseline.
  4. Click the stream to open it in the configuration editor.

    View the initial baseline in the Attributes tab, under Details, in the property called Created From.

  5. Optional: Create custom attribute values and links, if your team uses them.
    1. Click Edit at the top of the page.
      • Add attributes in the Attributes tab or links in the Links tab.
      • Add custom attributes. In the Attributes tab, click Add Attribute and then select the appropriate attribute. Depending on the type of attribute, enter any required values. If you do not see the attribute that you need, create it in the Manage Type Definitions page, on the Attributes tab.
      • Add tags. Avoid including sensitive data in tag names as described in step 3.
      • Add links. In the Links tab, click Add Link and then select the link. Type a URL. If you do not see the link that you need, create it in the Manage Type Definitions page, on the Link Types tab.
    2. Save your changes.

    You can modify custom attribute values and links and add or remove custom attribute values and links for the component. Learn about adopting changes made to attribute and link labels or values after they were added to a component in Adopting changes to attribute and link labels or values.

  6. Click the initial stream on the Streams tab. Now you can see the empty stream.

What to do next

Use a stream to gather configurations from other IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management applications, such as IBM Engineering Test Management, and IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS® Next (DOORS Next). If you want to create another stream and there is no other suitable baseline, you can create a stream from the initial baseline, as described in step 3.