Fixing or replacing a product

Before you fix or replace a product, find out information about other products that might be impacted by the fix or replacement.

About this task

The following two scenarios are likely to occur to teams working on a product deliverable. Each has its own workflow. The first scenario is a simple fix and does not require a product change. The second scenario is a replacement and requires a branch creation and replacement.

GPS fix

A team is working on the first release of a GPS product and runs into a problem with the touch screen digitizer. The team performs an analysis of the touch screen digitizer child product to find out which artifacts are associated with the product. The team needs to know what artifacts must change to support the fix. The impact analysis results diagram shows all associated artifacts. The team updates the associated artifacts--the work items, requirements, design models, and test cases by opening the artifacts from the analysis results. The team continues to work on the GPS product without changing the product structure.

Reflector replacement

A team is working on the bike product that was recalled for safety because the reflector on the back wheel falls off. The reflector is attached with adhesive, but needs to be reworked to be attached by a screw.

The wheel product has a child product called reflector, and reflector has a child product called adhesive. The team knows that the reflector product is used in other bikes.

The team lead performs a Find Use operation to create a list of other bikes that use the reflector product. The lead might look at the history to find a contact for the other bike teams. The team notifies the other bike teams about the fix.

The team lead performs an analysis of the reflector child product to find out which artifacts are associated with the product before they begin updates to the associated artifacts.

The team lead checks out a branch called reflector (:affix=screw) with a new screw child product and then performs a replace branch operation.

The following steps use the Reflector replacement scenario.

Procedure

  1. Search for a product.
    1. In any screen, enter the name of the product in the Quick Search field at the top right, change the scope to All Products or Newest Products, and search. (Following the example, you would look for the reflector product.)

      In the Quick Search results, click the product name. The product displays in the Browse Products page and is highlighted.

  2. Find the products that use the reflector product.
    1. In the Browse Products page, right-click over the reflector product and select Find Use.

      The Find Use screen lists the bike products that use the reflector product.

    2. Hover over any product and click the History icon.

      In the Audit History screen, you can see who owns the product and the last time it was updated. This gives you an idea about which colleagues to contact about replacing the reflector product.

      To learn more about history, see Viewing audit history.

  3. Analyze the reflector product to see the artifacts that have a relationship to it.
    1. In the main menu, click Products > Recently Viewed Products. Right-click over the product to be replaced and select Start Analysis.
    2. In the Impact Analysis screen, check the settings. Make any necessary changes.

      Select a custom profile or use the default. The Default profile analyzes all upstream and downstream artifacts that were referenced from the focus artifact to a depth of 2.

    3. Click Start Analysis.
    4. Read information about the artifact by clicking it and then clicking the Preview icon. View the information in the hover text. To open the artifact in the native tool, click the name of the artifact at the top of the hover text.
    5. Find where an artifact is used in other products by clicking the Find Use in Products icon.

      For detailed steps on analysis, see Analyzing an artifact's relationships to other artifacts.

  4. Check out a branch from the reflector product.

    A branch is a variation of a product. In the reflector product, you want to check out a branch to develop a variation of that product called reflector (:affix=screw).

    1. Right-click over the product and select Check Out New Branch.
    2. In the Check Out New Branch dialog, create a branch.

      For directions, see Creating a variation to branch a product.

  5. Replace the original reflector product with the new branch called reflector (:affix=screw).

    Right-click over the reflector product and select Replace Branch.

    For directions, see Replacing a branch.

  6. Continue product development. If you are ready to release the product, you can check in the current configuration by Checking in a version to capture a milestone.

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