You can create impact analysis diagrams to find artifacts
that are related to a selected focus artifact. You can then investigate
each of the linked artifacts.
Before you begin
Impact analysis diagrams are constructed from impact analysis
profiles and provide an overall view of how artifacts in a product
are related. You must have at least one impact analysis profile before
you create an impact analysis diagram. For instructions, see Creating impact analysis profiles.
About this task
Use impact analysis diagrams to discover all the artifacts
that link to or from the focus artifact or to explore the impact of
changes on the related artifacts.
When you create an impact
analysis diagram, depending on the focus artifact that you choose,
the initial diagram can include many artifacts. You can focus on specific
artifacts and links in the diagram by removing existing artifacts
or by adding new ones. You can also examine the properties of specific
artifacts in the diagram.
Procedure
- In the main menu, click .
- In the Impact Analysis dialog box,
set the focus artifact and the profile.
- Search for and select the artifact to be the starting
point for the analysis by entering a partial or full artifact name
in the Focus Artifact field. If you do not
find the artifact you need, click Advanced Search to
enter more detailed search criteria.
- Select a focus artifact.
- Select a profile, and then start the analysis.
A
profile specifies the traversal direction, traversal depth, and filters
to apply during an analysis.
If your administrator has deployed
the Analysis content package, the Default profile and four additional
profiles are in the Profile list box.
In
version 4.0.4 and earlier, one profile, Default, is in the Profile list
box.
- To specify how the analysis traverses artifacts as it builds
the diagram, complete the following steps:
- To include artifacts that are upstream from the focus
artifact, downstream from the focus artifact, or both, click the Traversal tab.
To learn more about the upstream and downstream settings,
hover over the word Traversal to read hover help.
- Set the depth that you want analyzed by entering a number
in the depth field.
- Optional: Set a type for the analysis to
find by clicking the Set Depth Based on Type icon.
In the Select Type dialog, set Value to
specify the artifact type. The artifact type that you set replaces
the depth, and the analysis searches until it finds the type.
- To generate the impact analysis diagram, click Apply. As the following screen capture shows, when you run an
impact analysis, the diagram is displayed under the edit panel. Further,
details about the analysis, such as added and hidden artifacts, are
displayed in the accordion tabs on the right.

In version 4.0.4 and earlier, details about
the analysis, such as added and hidden artifacts, are displayed in
the edit panel tabs on the right.

- In the editor, click in the title field and type a name
for the new impact analysis diagram, if you want to save the diagram.
- Optional: You can control how the diagram is
displayed on the page by using the controls on the diagram toolbar.
- To save the impact analysis diagram so that other team
members can use it, click Save. The
new diagram is automatically included in the list of available diagrams.
- You can explore the potential impact of changes by adding
or removing artifacts.
This exploration is useful when
you must introduce a change to fix a bug or create a variant of the
product hierarchy.
- Optional: To examine the properties of an artifact
in the impact analysis diagram, select the artifact and click the Preview icon.
- Optional: Find where an artifact is used in
other products by clicking the Find Use in Products icon.