Managing configurations

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Teams have many reasons to move, replace, remove, and rename configurations in the Global Configuration Management (GCM) tree view. For example, you might move deeply nested global configurations so that they are children of the root so that you can baseline different parts of the hierarchy at different times. Or, you might replace a stream with a baseline before you commit a baseline staging stream at the tree root.

Additionally, you might remove a configuration if a feature your team is building becomes unnecessary. You might rename a configuration if a product name changes. If you have a global configuration hierarchy with multiple different configurations of the same component (skew), you might need to reorder the configurations so that the configuration you need is ordered first.

Before you begin

The following list shows which GCM role you must be assigned to modify the member configurations or descriptive properties of global streams, or modify the descriptive properties of global baselines.
  • To modify a personal stream, you must be the owner with the Contributor role or higher.
  • To modify other team members' personal streams, you must have the Administrator role or higher.
  • To modify a stream, you must have the Configuration Lead role or higher.
  • To modify a baseline or baseline staging stream, you must have the Baseline Maker role or higher. You can modify certain baseline attributes (such as name and description, and possibly custom attributes), but not the member configurations.

About this task

Before you change a configuration, you might need to search for it:
  • Type part of its name in Quick Search Magnifying glass near the upper right of the page.
  • In the tree view, expand a series of nested configurations by clicking the global configuration, and then right-click Expand All.
  • On the Welcome page, search by configuration type, name, and tags.

Procedure

  • Show configurations alphabetically in the tree view.

    To find configurations by listing them alphabetically, on the toolbar in the tree view, click Sort View (Button labeled a to z with a downward arrow beside the letters) and click Name. You can't move a configuration in this view; to do that, switch to Contribution Order. Configurations with the same name are shown in their contribution order: the position they were manually added or moved to.

  • Rename a configuration.

    Select a configuration in the tree view and click Edit on the right side. Rename the configuration in the field next to Save, and then save the change.

    You can rename any global stream or global baseline. Rename local configurations in their owning application (for example, you must rename a requirements management configuration in the Requirements Management application).

  • Remove configurations from global streams.

    Select a configuration to remove from the tree view, right-click, and select Remove.

    To remove multiple peer configurations at the same time, select them, right-click one of them and select Remove.

    The configurations are removed from the configuration hierarchy, but are still available for you to add them again later.

  • Move or reorder configurations in a global stream.

    You can move several configurations from different parts of one configuration tree to the same or a different tree.

    1. In the tree view, find the configurations to move or reorder; then, right-click one of them and select Move.
    2. Choose where to place the configurations.
      • Same tree: Click another configuration in the global stream.
      • Different tree: Browse to the other tree. For example, select a configuration from the Global Configurations menu on the product banner. Or, on the banner, click Components and open the component that you need. Then, click the appropriate global stream and click where you want to place the selected configurations.
    3. Click Place, and choose Before, Inside, or After.

      The Inside option is available only when you choose a global stream as the place.

    You can move any stream under a global stream.

    You can move local configurations, or create streams and baselines of local configurations in the tree view, but you must make all other updates to local configurations in the owning IBM® Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) application.

    To learn about reordering a configuration after you view a component skew report, see Unexpected local configuration in Current Configuration menu.

  • Drag-and-drop.

    Find one or more configurations in the tree view that you want to move or reorder. Then, drag them to where you want to place them. To move your selections to other tree views, use the Move and Place actions as described previously.

    Add configurations to the tree view: You can drag local configurations from other ELM applications to the tree view. For more information, see Adding configurations to a stream.

    Add configurations between trees: You can drag configurations between the trees by opening the global configuration trees in separate browser windows. The drag-and-drop gesture moves configurations within a tree and adds configurations between trees, and helps you to quickly build a configuration tree.

  • Replace a configuration.
    1. Right-click a configuration in the tree view and select Replace.
    2. Choose the configuration that you want in the results field. Enter a name in the search field to filter results.

      This action exchanges a configuration in the hierarchy with a different configuration of the same component. Replacing a global configuration also replaces the hierarchy beneath it. In the following image, choosing the MTM 1.1 Development stream replaces MTM Production stream and its nested configurations.

      You can replace a stream with a stream, a baseline with a baseline, a stream with a baseline, and vice versa.

      To replace a configuration with one of a different component, you must remove the configuration and add the different configuration.

      "Replace Configuration" dialog box when replacing a global configuration
  • Update a stream with a baseline
    This action, available only on global streams, replaces baselines with the ones from another global baseline. For example, update a stream to include content from a more recent milestone baseline, or roll back to a previous baseline. Configurations in the global stream are added, removed, and replaced to match the baseline that you choose.
    Note: To replace a configuration with a different configuration of the same component, use the Replace command instead.
    See Updating streams from baselines to understand the different between the Update and Replace actions.
    1. Right-click a global stream in the tree view and select Update.
    2. Select a baseline of the stream or a baseline of any nested stream in the current section of the hierarchy.

What to do next

Now you have a configuration hierarchy, which you customized by moving, reordering, replacing, renaming, removing, or updating configurations. If your team completed a milestone, then you are ready to save the milestone. See Creating a baseline to save a milestone.