Creating impact analysis profiles

Before you can perform an impact analysis on artifacts, you must create an impact analysis profile.

About this task

Impact analysis diagrams are driven by impact analysis profiles. Profiles can limit the linked artifacts that are included in an impact analysis diagram. For example, a profile can specify the following limitations:

• Restrict links to only upstream or downstream artifacts.
  • Upstream links lead to the focus artifacts in an impact analysis.
  • Downstream links lead away from the focus artifacts in an impact analysis.
• Restrict the depth of each link followed.
• Restrict the kinds of links that are followed.
• Restrict the kinds of artifacts that are included in the diagram.

1. In the main menu, click Analysis > Create > Impact analysis profile.
2. In the editor, click in the title field and type a unique name for the new profile.
3. To specify how the analysis traverses artifacts as it builds the diagram:
   1. To include artifacts that are upstream from the focus artifact, downstream from the focus artifact, or both, set the Traversal list box.

      To learn more about the upstream and downstream settings, hover over the small question marks to read hover help.

      You might see artifacts in your analysis that you do not recognize, such as Class and Architecture Resource. The downstream and upstream impact analysis profiles that come with IBM® Engineering Lifecycle Optimization Engineering Insights follow all types of links to all types of artifacts in the index, including those that determine the type of each artifact. (The link is abbreviated rdf:type, and labeled in diagrams as type.) The rdf:type links lead to artifacts that are labeled as Class in the navigation tree, while oslc_am:Resource links lead to Architecture Resource artifacts. If you see more artifacts that you do not recognize, they are likely other links of this kind.

   2. Set the depth to control how many node levels you want analyzed by entering a number in the depth field.
   3. Optional: Set a type for the analysis to find by clicking the Set depth based on type icon. In the Select type dialog box, set Value to specify the artifact type. The artifact type that you set replaces the depth, and the analysis searches until it finds the type.
4. Set conditions to control which artifacts and links the diagram can show or ignore. Click the Add condition icon and then choose a default condition or a custom condition that was set up for your team.

   A condition that you add in the Impact analysis profiles is displayed as link in the Conditions section. As a result, you can open the condition's editor page directly by clicking the condition name link from the Impact analysis profiles editor.

   The new impact analysis profile is included in the list of available profiles.

5. Optional: Export the profile to another Engineering Insights installation.
   1. In the main menu, click Analysis > Browse > Impact analysis profiles.
   2. Check the boxes that correspond to the profile names that you want to export.
   3. Click the Export selected profiles icon to start the download.

      Exporting profiles also exports all impact analysis conditions that are included in the selected profiles.

Example

This image shows an example of profile settings for a new impact analysis profile.

What to do next

• Creating and modifying impact analysis diagrams
• Analyzing the relationships of an artifact to other artifacts