RDNG: How to inherit parent attributes?
I was wondering if there is a way to update / inherit a attribute from linked parent artifact.
Imagine the following: A customer requirement features an attribute, for the scenario let's say it's a validation method.
During the subsequent steps I copy the customer requirement to my working environment, refine it and set a link to the original requirment and keep some of the original information for context - like the validation method.
Now if the customer changes his mind about the validation method I have to manually go through every artifact that was derived from the changed customer artifact. Using the "Format" option for views clearly shows this data is available, but I haven't found a way to interact with this data besides manually copying it.
The "link by attribute" function is almost what I need, but it falls short as there isn't a way to get more than the referenced module ID, so it's a dead end.
Anyone got an idea?
EDIT:
I was hoping for a functionality like:
"Apply to all (marked) artifacts:
For every link of [LINK TYPE], take attribute [PARENT ATTRIBUTE TYPE] and [COPY-PASTE/APPEND] to [CHILD ATTRIBUTE]."
This functionality would reduce error prone manual data inheritance and I think many people would profit from it.
One answer
You could create a filter to filter for all the linked artefacts, and then use bulk edit to update all their values at once
Comments
I can see how this approach would be useful when talking about a single customer requirement and many derived requirements, but this comes with severe limitations:
1) This approach is unpractical for situations of only few links to a parent requirements because the effort of setting the filter outweights following the one or two links manually.
2) Setting the filter manually comes with the same risks of typos as manually copying and pasting the IDs. This is what I'd like to avoid.
3) Two parent requirements mapping into a single child requirement cannot be done like that.
4) You still have to address every single customer requirement change at every single level (and module).
I was hoping for a bit more automation.
In the first case, the filter is super simple to set, and can be saved as a View. You then only potentially have to change one setting in the View.
In the second case, you would need manual intervention anyway. How would automation figure out which of the two parents to copy, if any?
I would argue that blindly copying stuff around on every change is not an optimal approach - I would want to assess the change in each case and then determine if any or all should be updated.
>How would automation figure out which of the two parents to copy, if any?
The same way the Link by Attribute figures it out: For all links of a specific type and the selected artifacts.
>I would argue that blindly copying stuff around on every change is not an optimal approach - I would want to assess the change in each case and then determine if any or all should be updated.
Agreed, having a fixed connection that constantly updates may not be suitable for all approaches, but having the possibility to update artifacts on the basis of related artifacts would seem useful.
The more I read about the topic, the more I feel I won't get around scripting.