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# Assign valid relationships

In the Administration Console, assign valid relationships to define which type of relationships are possible between items and requests.

Note: This functionality is available for items and Dimensions CM requests only.

In this topic:

## Valid relationship guidelines

In the Object Types section of the Administration Console, you can add, modify, and delete a valid relationship for a selected request or item type.

For an overview of object relationships, see Relationships between objects.

Guidelines:

- To add and manage valid relationships, you need the Manage Object Types privilege.

- Valid relationships are not effective if CM Rules have not been set for a particular request type. Any request whose type rules are disabled may have any product item revision related to it, provided its item type rules are also disabled.

- Requests: Dimensions CM can automatically track the minimum and maximum statuses for a request type. In this case, you need to assign user-defined attributes to the request type to contain the minimum and maximum status. For details, see Minimum and maximum statuses.

For details about the Valid Relationships tab for request and item types, see Object Types content area.

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## Minimum and maximum statuses

You may need to measure the progress of a Dimensions CM request by the minimum status of its related child requests.

For example, when a Problem Report (PR) is raised, a Problem Assessor may want to create a number of Change Requests (CR) from it and assign the change requests to individual developers. In this scenario, the originator of the PR may want to assess the progress of the PR based on the minimum status of the CRs that are related to it.

Dimensions CM provides a status auto tracking option in the process model for every possible pair of parent request types and children request types.

When you enable the automatic tracking for a request pair such as <PR, CR>, Dimensions CM tracks the minimum status of the CRs related to each PR, using a PR's user-defined attribute. The value of this attribute may be browsed or reported on using standard Dimensions CM browse and report functions.

The maximum status can also be tracked. Both the minimum and maximum status may be used to provide a better indication of the request progress.

Rules for tracking the min and max statuses:

- Only requests that are on the normal lifecycle path can have their status combined in a parent request. If more than two requests are related to the parent request, the attribute value is set to the minimum status of those requests.

  Example: WP_1 has the attribute min_cn_status that tracks the minimum status of CN_1 and CN_2 requests that are related to it as Dependent. CN_1 is actioned to an off-normal state, so the attribute contains the status of CN_2.

- If there are no requests related as Dependent, the minimum status attribute is NULL, even if requests were related earlier.

- If all dependent requests are off the normal lifecycle path, the combined status is $OFF-NORMAL.

- You can track the minimum status of one type of request by using a specified attribute for the request. You can use a different attribute to track a different request type.

- The minimum status is calculated based on requests in direct relationship to the parent request. It does not take into account the dependents of child requests.

Example 1: Track the minimum status (expand to view)

The Product Manager wants to track the minimum status of CN (Change Note) requests in relationship to WP (Work Package) requests. To do this, the Product Manager defines a new attribute for the WP request type, called min_cn_status, and clears the Display In options to hide the attribute from users.

Then the Product Manager defines a valid relationship between the CN request type (child) and the WP request type (parent), and specifies the newly created attribute min_cn_status for the minimum status setting.

Example 2: Track status with a product-level lifecycle (expand to view)

Suppose you have the following lifecycles, with dependent request types assigned to them at the product-level and design parts DP_1 and DP_2.

Product-level | DP_1 | DP_2
--- | --- | ---
Created | Initial | Created
Active |  |
Review |  | Fix
Working | Working |
Integrate |  | Done
Tested | Tested |
Released | Released | Released
Prod_integrate |  | Supplied
Prod_test |  |
Closed | Closed | Closed

In this case, if a request follows the product-level lifecycle and has the status Active, and another request follows the DP_1 lifecycle and has the status Tested, then the minimum status is Active, and the maximum is Tested.

The DP_2 lifecycle states Fix, Done, and Supplied do not have an equivalent in the product-level lifecycle. Fix and Done map to Created, which is the previous state that maps to an equivalent. Supplied maps to Released. If a request is on the product-level lifecycle state Active and another is on the DP_2 at Done, then their combined minimum is Created, and combined maximum is Active.

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## Assign a valid relationship

You can assign a valid relationship between item types and/or request types.

To assign a valid relationship:

1. In the Administration Console, go to Configuration Object Management > Object type definitions.

2. In the Object Types navigation pane, select the relevant item or request type.

3. In the content pane, select the Valid Relationships tab.

4. In the Valid Relationships section, click the Add valid relationship button.

5. In the New Valid Relationship dialog box, specify the details for item types or request types.

   For an item-item type relationship, see New/Edit Valid Relationship dialog box for items.

   For a request-request or request-item relationship, see New/Edit Valid Relationship dialog box for requests.

6. Click OK.

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## Edit or delete a valid relationship

You can edit or remove valid relationships between item types and/or request types.

To edit or delete a valid relationship:

1. In the Administration Console, go to Configuration Object Management > Object type definitions.

2. In the Object Types navigation pane, select the relevant item or request type.

3. In the content pane, select the Valid Relationships tab.

4. To delete a relationship, in the Valid Relationships section, select the relationship, click the Delete button, and confirm.

5. To modify a relationship, in the Valid Relationships section, select the relationship and click the Edit button.

6. In the Edit Valid Relationship dialog box, edit the inheritance options for item types, and the minimum and maximum statuses for request types.

7. Click OK.

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See also:

- Create relationship names
- Use attributes

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