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How to compare changes on links among RM/RQM/RTC for different release with Global Configuration enabled?


jane zhou (106764) | asked Jul 17 '17, 3:52 p.m.

 

Hi Someone who may concern,

        We are working on CLM 6.0.3.
         I am wondering if I want to compare link change among RM/RM/RTC for different release, whether it is feasible?
        Currently, we enabled Global Configuration to add tractability among RM/RQM/RTC ( RTC is not for source code control,only for defect/task tracking)
         However, we noticed when we create a change set in RM, if we only update link to RQM/RTC and try to deliver the change set, RM refuses to deliver it because it consider this as no difference. i.e. link change is not part of change set.
         And even we discard the change set, when we switch back to public GC stream from our private stream, our change on link still can take effect.
         If we create a baseline with GC context, i.e. every RM/RQM  stream contained in GC stream is baselined, then we create a link between RQM and RM as Validated by in RM stream, I can see the link both on RM and RQM. Then I compare the baseline I just created with current stream in RQM, it indicated there is no differences there. So at RQM stream, link change is not considered as part of it which can be merged.         

         So I assume link change is not part of RM or RQM. It should be related to GC.
         However, when I tried to compare 2 GC stream, one include all RM/QM baseline , one include current all RM/QM streams ( only difference is that I add a link between RQM/RM). it did not display any difference directly.
         
         So, I am wondering if I want to compare link change for different release, whether it is feasible?

          Thanks!

Best Regards,
Jane Zhou

       

 

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Kathryn Fryer (503147) | answered Jul 19 '17, 3:20 p.m.

Hi Jane,
Link behaviour in configuration-enabled projects can be confusing because they are directional and stored on only the artifact considered to be the "source" of the link.

In your scenario, the QM artifact stores the link to the requirement. So although you are making the change in an RM change set, you are actually changing only the QM artifact. The requirement is only checking LDX to discover and display incoming links. So when you deliver your change set that includes only RM-QM links, the deliver wizard can't detect any change to the RM artifacts and complains.

Although you discard the change set, you already created the link in QM, which has no change sets, so it was stored or "committed" immediately. Discarding the change set thus does not delete the link. (One might argue that the RM stream should not "find" the link that was created to the change set - but then you'd just have a dangling link in QM which might be worse.)

If you already had a QM baseline before you created the link, comparing the QM stream AFTER creating the link should show the difference. In my testing, I took a QM-only baseline immediately before creating the change set and the link, and then after discarding the undeliverable change set, I compared by QM stream to the baseline and saw the link change.

When you compare global configurations, the comparison is limited to the contributions themselves; it does not include the individual artifacts. So you would have to identify the QM configurations in your global baseline, open the QM configuration in context of your desired global stream, and then in the QM application, compare to the QM baseline.

You could also generate a document for each GC and do a doc comparison to identify the differences. You can do that manually (use document generation for each GC and MS Word compare capability), or in 604, Rational Publishing Engine provides a more automated way to do that.

Hope that helps. Directional links can be really confusing.

jane zhou selected this answer as the correct answer

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jane zhou commented Jul 22 '17, 10:23 a.m.

 Hi  Kathryn,


         Thank you very much for your detailed explanation!
         So, if possible, could you give me some link on how to use document generation for GC and MS Word compare capability). I did not realize CLM can provide such kind of functionality.  I just checked GC application for 6.0.3, I did not see any options related to document.

         Thanks again!

Best Regards,
Jane Zhou


Kathryn Fryer commented Jul 24 '17, 2:31 p.m.

Hi Jane,
The reporting isn't in GCM application. Some options:
1) In DNG, generate a Traceability Report for the artifacts (links must be on the base artifacts), one for each configuration context, then use Word compare. In 604, you can generate a document based on a view, which makes things easier especially if you're using modules.

2) In Report Builder, define a traceability report for requirements > tests and run against each configuration. In 603, export results for each to Excel 2013 or 2016 for comparison. In 604, you can export from Report Builder directly to Word and compare.

3) Use Rational Publishing Engine to define and gen documents for each configuration, and compare in Word, as described in this blog post. (You can also export JRS reports to RPE.) In 604, RPE has more automation to do the comparisons; see New & Noteworthy entry for more info.

Hope that helps!
 

One other answer



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Geoffrey Clemm (30.1k33035) | answered Jul 26 '17, 4:09 a.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER
edited Jul 26 '17, 4:10 a.m.

 Note that for change management of the links, it is important to understand where links are stored (and some of the application GUI's are being enhanced to make this clearer), but you can "find all changed links" in a global configuration without knowing where the links are stored.  In particular, perform a GC compare first, and then perform the appropriate domain specific compare on all of the GC contributions that the GC compare has shown as being changed.  

There is a work item to extend the GC compare to include a compare from the leaf contributions: https://jazz.net/jazz/resource/itemName/com.ibm.team.workitem.WorkItem/382223
Please feel free to add a comment to this work item to indicate your support.


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