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Can Inheritance be part of a Lifecycle Project ?


long TRUONG (3654118146) | asked Jan 08 '14, 9:39 a.m.
edited Jan 09 '14, 7:59 a.m. by Paul Slauenwhite (8.4k12)
 We are using a Lifecycle Project for the traceability among RTC/RRC/RQM and we are using inheritance for ease of upgrade of the highly customized process template, at least that is as far as I can see: We only have one project area, the child project area which inherits from a dummy master project area. Our child/consumer project area is in the Lifecycle project and presumably created new from within that Lifecycle project.

I was not with the project from the start, so I am quite puzzled with how the combination works:
  • An Unconfigured Process template is to be used for the child/consumer project area, yet if the project area for Change Management is created through a Lifecycle project, only 3 process templates (at least for the version 4.0.1 here) available (Scrum, OpenUp, Formal Project Management):
    • Is there a way to import the Unconfigured Process Template into the Life Cycle Project ?
    • Should the CM project area be created from an existing process-shared child/consumer project area ?
    • Or just pick one of the 3 available templates and tweak the child PA for inheritance ? In this case, what would the impact be? Scrum was picked on our DEV server and OpenUp was picked on our PRD server; and I am unaware of the tweaks if any. Wonder if that was the cause of the broken inheritance:
      • Would the tweak be removing everything within the "project configuration" frame (see below, I was trained to remove the empty "project configuration"  frame from the XML for an Unconfigured process on the Proj. config. source tab), including the frame, from the child project config source ?
    • Or Lifecycle project and Inheritance are not compatible with each other ?
  • Not sure if it is still the same now: I was trained to remove the  empty "project configuration"  frame from the XML for an Unconfigured process on the Proj. config. source tab of the child PA (otherwise there would be no inheritance) and also to copy the full "team configuration" frame from the parent to the inherited child, as team config is not inherited:
    • If that is (still) true, then does it matter which process template is used for the child/consumer PA ?
  • Maybe this is a dumb question: Should the master or child PA be included in the Lifecycle project ? Or Both ? Is there a way to include 2 CM PA's in 1 Lifecycle project ?

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Stephanie Bagot (2.1k1513) | answered Jan 13 '14, 11:42 a.m.
FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER
  • Is there a way to import the Unconfigured Process Template into the Life Cycle Project ?
    --> Yes, but when you export from CCM, the process template is a ZIP, and the lifecycle import requires an XML file. You would need to merge the XML files from the ZIP into a single XML file for Lifecycle. In this case, manual merging is the only option and can be time consuming.

  • Should the CM project area be created from an existing process-shared child/consumer project area ?
    -->This is what I would suggest. Create a seperate CCM project area which is inheriting the process from your master. When you create the lifecycle project, link to the existing CCM project area instead of creating a new one.

  • Or just pick one of the 3 available templates and tweak the child PA for inheritance ? In this case, what would the impact be? Scrum was picked on our DEV server and OpenUp was picked on our PRD server; and I am unaware of the tweaks if any. Wonder if that was the cause of the broken inheritance:
    • Would the tweak be removing everything within the "project configuration" frame (see below, I was trained to remove the empty "project configuration"  frame from the XML for an Unconfigured process on the Proj. config. source tab), including the frame, from the child project config source ?
      --> This may work. The only problem is that if your Master process configuration allows for overwrite of certain features, the inheriting project area may have those areas configured, and thus not inherit the process in its entirety. When process sharing, you typically want to use the unconfigured process template to ensure this does not happen.
      Also, keep in mind that once a project area is created with a template, this should not be changed to a different process template as it may impact any of your work - work items, plans etc. if they do not match the new process configuration.

  • Not sure if it is still the same now: I was trained to remove the  empty "project configuration"  frame from the XML for an Unconfigured process on the Proj. config. source tab of the child PA (otherwise there would be no inheritance) and also to copy the full "team configuration" frame from the parent to the inherited child, as team config is not inherited:
    • If that is (still) true, then does it matter which process template is used for the child/consumer PA ?
      ---> We typically don't recommend editing the XML source directly as it may have adverse effects on your process configuration. That being said, if you copied the configuration from the master to the child, you can use the child as the 'Master config', (and you don't need to inherit). Just keep in mind that if any other project areas inherit from the original master you still need to make the changes there, and this may impact your new project area if it is no longer inheriting.
  • Maybe this is a dumb question: Should the master or child PA be included in the Lifecycle project ? Or Both ? Is there a way to include 2 CM PA's in 1 Lifecycle project ?
    --> I would include only the child PA, since this is the one that will have the dependancies/linkages with the other CLM applications.

Comments
Ralph Schoon commented Jan 13 '14, 12:09 p.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER

Stephanie, there are different kinds of templates.

In the LPA (Lifecycle Project) you have an XML File. You can export and modify it.
The XML refers to an existing template name/ID which can be changed easily. So you can create an LPA template that refers to your own RTC template. The template also can be the unconfigured one in RTC, which would then allow you to use the template to instantiate a project area that can inherit another project areas process.


You don't import the unconfigured process into LPA, you create you own LPA template that uses it. and then use that template to create LPA projects.

This is actually quite easy to do. Just download the LPA XML template and look at what you got.


Ralph Schoon commented Jan 13 '14, 12:10 p.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER

BTW, I have tried that out in 4.x some time beginning of 2013.


Stephanie Bagot commented Jan 13 '14, 12:18 p.m.
FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER

Sorry I did try to illicit this point. I know the CCM template and Lifecycle templates are different formats as I mentioned above, so yes you can't simply import the unconfigured template as a lifecycle.


Ralph Schoon commented Jan 13 '14, 12:41 p.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER

Stephanie, no problem, I read through your first item in the answer and I did not understand the part of the answer. The question is obviously very complex and I might have missed a point. Sorry for that. I was only trying to say:

  • You can use LPA to create an RTC project area based on the Unconfigured or any other templates with only changing the LPA XML/creating a new one
  • This is quite manageable, not very complex and safe to do
  • You won't have to create a new process template
  • You don't have to modify the RTC process template
I did not try to answer other implication, e.g.how to move an existing project area with a configured process to one that shares a process.
 


sam detweiler commented Jan 15 '14, 3:46 p.m. | edited Jan 15 '14, 3:47 p.m.

 Sorry, I am coming to this late.. I now need to create templates for Lifecycle project that deploy the RTC component on a parent child shared process template. 


I guess I would change the CLM template XML to use the 'Unconfigured process'.
I don't see any followup steps to then anchor it off the proper parent rtc template.
the admin person should not know which parent template to use, there should only be one template active. 

Is this a manual step? 


sam detweiler commented Jan 15 '14, 5:02 p.m.

as a followon, is there any support for customer supplied scripting at the end of the LPA template processing?  


Ralph Schoon commented Jan 16 '14, 2:34 a.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER

Sam,

when I tried this out, selecting the project to inherit the process from was a manual step. I am not sure if it is possible to create automation. I haven't looked into this topic.

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