Issues with Satisfied by/ Satisfies - type links in IBM DNG
I created subject link-type in DNG and linked various artefacts from different modules in the same project area. URI was also assigned to the new link-type.
When I create traceability report using JRS, I see two link types: Satisfied By, Satisfied by.
Also for satisfies I see a warning in JRS link selection list. These two link types (Satisfied By, Satisfied by) results in an
extra row for each requirement artefact R in the resulting report (tabular form) where only first column for R is populated and subsequent columns for that row are empty. Any idea how to solve this issue.
2 answers
Hi Shahid,
This indicates that you have very slightly misspelt the link type names across different project areas - whenever you see a warning in the JRS on artefacts, attributes, or link types it is usually because you have two or more that are similar but not quite the same.
In your case it looks like one of the project areas has specified the link type names using a lower case letter on the "Satisfied by" end and so the JRS is treating them as different entities, and so when you use the link in the report one of them is valid for your project area and the other is not, hence the empty row.
Have a look across the different project areas that you can see and find the differently spelled link type. Correct it and then wait a little for the warehouse to resync, and try the report again. You want no yellow warning signs when you build a report, otherwise there's a risk of incorrect or inconsistent data
Comments
Hi Davyd,
Yes, I had misspelt "Satisfied By" as "Satisfied by" for some projects. I corrected them and am waiting for DW to resync. Why it matter to have the same spelling across all project areas? I mean I had only one RM area selected for my report, and this area had only one "Satisfied By" link-type defined. Why JRS is looking into other project areas for link types.
Moreover, I could choose only "satisfied by" and parent/child links. All other links are presented as a single entry (something like "all other linke types except parent/child"). How to refine my report using different link types. For instance, how to refine using "uses" types link or "Term Referenced From" type link.
Hi Shahid,
The data warehouses collect information across all project areas of every registered application, and aggregate the data into a single lake that you can query. While doing this, they collect all the metadata for the type system of each project area and try to consolidate it where possible.
If there are any inconsistencies they will be flagged with a warning to let you know that the type system isn't quite aligned. This is for the exact reason you discovered here - if you had tried to reuse the report on the other project areas, it would have returned incorrect results. This is also why it's a warning and not an error - as long as you know and understand your naming, then it's up to you what each project area uses, but best practice is to align the types
Hi Shahid,
I think you're running into this.
Even the first comment on the video says it's more confusing when you add traceability into the mix.
Give it a shot!
Kevin Murphy
IBM Champion
Comments
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for pointing to the video. I actually ran into this problem while generating some views in ENI. I figured out for myself that I had to use the "use by" link to restrict the duplicate entries. However, the current issue concerns the presence of yellow symbols on link types. I could see in your video that your "pick a relationship" also has many yellow symbols; for instance, four "Satisfied by (Vehicle)" entries, and each has a yellow symbol. My first guess is that you have used different URIs while defining the link types. Could you please investigate why you have multiple entries for the same link type?