Workflow for variants and baselines in Global Configuration Management and Engineering Lifecycle Management applications

Create a variant and a baseline

1. The configuration lead, John, creates a global configuration variant from a baseline.

   John starts with the most recent release of a nested global configuration, Meter Reader Mobile US 3.0 GA Baseline.

   Figure 1. Global configuration baseline

   

   John creates a stream for the variant, called Meter Reader Mobile UK 3.0.

   Figure 2. Create stream for UK variant.

   

   Initially, the new UK variant stream has the same baselines (non-modifiable) as the baseline that it was created from.

   Figure 3. New UK variant stream

   

   For the UK variant, John would change requirements and test cases, so the Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next , and QM (Engineering Test Management) configurations must be modifiable streams. (John can use the AM (formerly DM) baseline as is.) The Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next and Engineering Test Management configurations are from other tools. John can create the variant streams directly from the global configuration hierarchy, or he can talk to the Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next and Engineering Test Management team leads about creating the variant streams in the corresponding tools. John uses one of the following processes:

   • John creates the variant streams directly, so the baselines are replaced by the streams in the global configuration hierarchy. Skip to step 3.
     
   • The Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next and Engineering Test Management team leads create the variant streams. The team leads must tell John when the streams are available so that he can replace the baselines with the variant streams in the global configuration. Proceed to step 2.
2. John replaces the Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next and Engineering Test Management baselines with streams.

   John uses the Replace menu (right-click) from the Meter Reader (RM) Mobile US 3.0 GA Baseline, and picks the new Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next stream UK variant that the team lead told him about, Meter Reader Mobile (RM) UK 3.0.

   Figure 4. Replace a baseline with a stream.

   

   John completes the same step for the new Engineering Test Management stream UK variant, and then the global configuration looks like the following image.

   Figure 5. Replace a baseline with a stream.

   

3. John notifies the Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next and Engineering Test Management team leads that the global configuration variant is ready for their teams to use. The team leads tell their teams to set their configuration context to the global configuration variant, as shown in the following image. The local configuration is set automatically to use the new stream variant for the specific Engineering Lifecycle Management application.

   Figure 6. Working in the correct global configuration context. The Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next configuration context is set automatically.

   

   Teams change the variant in their Engineering Lifecycle Management applications.

   After the work of defining the necessary variant streams is done, teams can use the streams as they update and modify requirements and test cases. The teams make the necessary changes for the UK variant, and then deliver their changes to their local configurations. The teams are ready for the first milestone of the schedule, M1, so it is time to baseline the global configuration.

4. John creates or stages a baseline.

   John can create a baseline or a baseline staging stream, depending on his team's process.

   • Create a baseline: The M1 milestone occurs on a specific date, and all teams that contribute configurations must be finished with changes to their streams by that date. John creates the baseline hierarchy from the root by selecting Create Baseline, as shown in the following image. Baselines are automatically created for the stream variants that are contributed by Engineering Lifecycle Management applications.

     Figure 7. Create a baseline.

     

     John created the baseline. Proceed to step 7.

   • Create a baseline staging stream: The M1 milestone does not occur on a specific date, but rather when all the contributing streams are ready. John creates a baseline staging stream, called Meter Reader Mobile UK 3.0 M1, from the root by selecting Stage Baseline. The baseline staging stream is an uncommitted baseline that would be committed after John replaces the Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next and Engineering Test Management streams with baselines.

     Figure 8. Create a baseline staging stream.

     

     If John tries to commit Meter Reader Mobile UK 3.0 M1 now, the operation fails because the global configuration still contains (modifiable) streams.

5. John replaces the Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next and Engineering Test Management streams with baselines.

   The Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next team lead determines that the requirements work for M1 is complete, and then creates a baseline that is called Meter Reader Mobile (RM) UK 3.0 M1. The Engineering Test Management team lead also creates a baseline of the Engineering Test Management local configuration. John communicates with the Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next and Engineering Test Management team leads to find out when he can replace the stream variants with baselines as the baselines become available.

   Figure 9. Replace a stream with a baseline.

   

   John also replaces the Engineering Test Management stream with a baseline, and then the tree view looks like the following image.

   Figure 10. Global configuration for M1 milestone

   

6. John commits the baseline.

   Now all the configurations are non-modifiable baselines, so John can commit Meter Reader Mobile UK 3.0 M1.

   Figure 11. Commit the M1 milestone baseline.

   

   The first milestone of the UK variant global configuration is complete.

7. John can now compare the UK variant with the original US configuration, which shows the differing configurations. John selects the root, then from the menu clicks Compare With, and chooses the original baseline Meter Reader Mobile US 3.0 GA Baseline.

   Figure 12. Compare US and UK global configuration baselines.

   

   

   To gather more details about the changes, John might open the Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next or Engineering Test Management configuration and compare it to a different version.

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