Adding release links in global configurations

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Associate global configurations with releases to ensure that versioned artifacts show incoming work item links. Releases are defined and managed in the IBM Engineering Workflow Management (EWM) application, but can be added within global configurations in the Global Configuration Management (GCM) application. A global configuration's release links are used for viewing incoming links in IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS® Next (DOORS Next) and IBM Engineering Test Management (ETM) from work items to versioned artifacts, such as requirements and test cases.

Before you begin

Note: Use the following guidelines to read this topic:

Changes that are applicable only for 7.0.2 iFix008 and later versions are tagged with the icon.
Changes that are applicable for 7.0.2, 7.0.2 iFix008 and later versions are not tagged.

To add or remove release links in global configurations:

You must be a member of the Global Configuration Management (GCM) project area that contains the global configurations that you want to associate with the releases.
For a shared (non-personal) global configuration, you must have the Configuration Lead role or higher, or Add or remove links write access privilege for that project or team area.
You must have at least read access to the EWM project areas that contain the releases.

About this task

To view or manage incoming links in the ELM applications (such as ETM and DOORS Next) from EWM work items to specific versions of the artifacts, such as requirements or test cases, you must add release links in global configurations.

You can also set a corresponding global configuration on a release definition in the EWM application. For more information, see Enabling linking of work items to versioned artifacts.

To enable linking of work items to versioned artifacts, you must configure your GCM and EWM project areas.

In the EWM application, ensure that the following are true:
- Releases are defined.
- The Configuration Management > OSLC Link/Attribute Mapping is enabled by clicking Enable global configuration resolution for remote resources with versions in the EWM project area editor. To show or hide the global configuration picker in the banner, a project area administrator can select or clear the Enable user selection of the configuration context checkbox in the editor.
  After you enable, you can only customize the OSLC mappings, but you cannot disable it. Existing projects that use the OSLC Link/Attribute Mapping page are automatically enabled for configurations.
- A global configuration value is set on each release definition.
For more information, see the steps in Enabling linking of work items to versioned artifacts.
In the GCM application, ensure that the Global Configuration artifact type includes the Release link type. For more information about managing type definitions, see Managing type definitions.

By default, the release values of a newly created global configuration are the same as the configuration from which it is derived. For example, if you create a baseline of a stream, the release values of the stream are copied to that baseline.

For a personal stream, the release values are copied from the underlying global stream in the following scenarios:

When a personal stream is created.
When an archived personal stream is automatically unarchived if a change set is created in the context of a shared stream.

A personal stream can be linked explicitly to any release as set by the owner. If the release links of the underlying global stream are changed, owners must update their personal streams to match the associated release link, or else versioned artifacts might show incorrect incoming work item links.

Note: A change to a release value of a global configuration somewhere in a global configuration hierarchy is not automatically propagated to that configuration's parent, child, or sibling global configurations in the hierarchy. You must manually propagate such changes and associate each configuration with an appropriate release link explicitly. If you don't propagate these changes, and you choose some other global configuration in the hierarchy as your configuration context, then versioned artifacts might not show the expected incoming work item links.

Configuration leads must do the following actions at the time of stream creation for a new release cycle to avoid inconsistencies later:

Create a new global stream, typically derived from a baseline of the previous release.
Remove any outdated release links from the newly created stream if the new stream is one of the following types:
- A different variant, and must not be associated with the same old set of releases.
- A stream for a new successor release. If the successor release has one or more predecessors in EWM, then the new stream is automatically associated with the predecessor releases. If not required, the predecessor releases can be removed from explicit association with the new stream.
Add the appropriate release links to the new stream.

Note: In complex scenarios, the release links can be automatically applied in bulk over many streams through scripting (REST and OSLC APIs).

Procedure

Open a configuration. Go to Links tab, and click Edit.
Click Add Link and select the Release link type.
A dialog box opens.
Select the EWM project area to see all matching releases.

Note: By default, all accessible EWM project areas are available for selection. However, if you are seeing any irrelevant EWM project areas, ask your administrator to limit the list of available project areas by enforcing project area associations.
Select one or more releases to add, and click OK.
Save your changes.
Ensure that you also update other configurations, such as the parent, child, or sibling global configurations in the hierarchy, or any personal streams that are impacted due to this change.

Results

The association is completed. You can hover over a release link to find more details, such as project area, description, iteration, and predecessors.

Importing existing release links from EWM to GCM

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After you associate EWM releases with global configurations in the EWM application, you must create corresponding release links in the GCM application from those global configurations. You can add the release links in the global configuration manually or use the bulk import function of the GCM application to ensure that the preexisting associations are set up properly.

Before you begin

For each GCM project area, you must have the Configuration Lead role or higher, or Add or remove links write access privilege for each global configuration type.
You must have at least read access to the EWM project areas that contain the releases.

About this task

You can use the bulk import function to import the previous associations between releases and existing global configurations from the EWM application into the GCM application in the following scenarios:

When you upgrade from a prior IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) version to ELM 7.0.2 version.
To ensure that a relationship between a global configuration and a release exists in GCM for each corresponding relationship between a release and a global configuration in EWM.

The import of existing associations from EWM into GCM is important to ensure that all incoming links from EWM work items to versioned artifacts in the ELM applications (such as ETM and DOORS Next) appear correctly.

When you create a new global configuration (stream, baseline, or baseline staging stream) from a global stream that is associated with release links, the newly created global configuration gets a copy of the release values from its predecessor.

When personal streams are created, their initial release values are copied from their shared global configurations. But if any changes are made to the release values of the personal streams or their shared global configurations thereafter, they do not remain in sync.

If you want to import release links from all applicable EWM project areas at once, then you can do so as someone who has access to those EWM project areas. You can also import release links for multiple GCM project areas at the same time provided you have access to those project areas.

Alternatively, importing can be done incrementally in successive cycles. So you can import release links from some project areas on one import, and from the other project areas on another import. For example, you might choose to import the release links from all project areas of server EWM1 in one step, and then import the release links from the project areas of server EWM2 in another step later.

Note: Importing release links from a project area that was already imported is harmless. But someone from your team must ensure that the importing task is complete. All necessary associations must be imported otherwise you might experience missing incoming work item links for versioned artifacts (requirements or test cases).

Example:

Suppose that you have the following relationship between a release and a global configuration in EWM 7.0.1: Release 1.0 to Car 2026 as shown in the following image. As a post upgrade step in EWM 7.0.2, you want to import the relationship into the GCM application as follows: Car 2026 to Release 1.0 (the reverse direction). Here, you can use the Import Release Links wizard from the Administration menu in the GCM application to link Car 2026 to Release 1.0.

Image of a global configuration associated with a previous release

Associating global configuration Car 2026 to Release 1.0 doesn't automatically associate Ignition 2026 to Release 1.0 or any other global configurations that belong in the hierarchy of Product Line 2026. You must manually associate the other configurations in the hierarchy with an appropriate release link by creating links explicitly. Otherwise, the expected work item links are not shown for versioned artifacts if you use a different global configuration in the hierarchy as your configuration context.

Procedure

Open Administration > Import Release Links.
A window opens.
Select the EWM project areas from where you want to import the release links. Click Select all to select all the project areas. Then, click Next.

Note: By default, all accessible EWM project areas are available for selection. However, if you are seeing any irrelevant EWM project areas, ask your administrator to limit the list of available project areas by enforcing project area associations.
Optional: Click Preview Import to preview the changes.
Click Import Release Links to start the process.
Review the changes that are applied after the import.
Click Finish to exit.

Results

The bulk import process is completed.

Note: You can import the release links from the same project area again without any issues. The system takes care of all the associations in the background, and you can further check the association details in the preview section. Hence, you can safely select any project area when you do the bulk import.