You can create and modify 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 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.
If
your focus artifact is a product version, you must set a product configuration
so that sufficient information exists to traverse the product and
its links. If your diagram shows the product only, the Configuration field
is probably empty.
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
(Hide Artifact) or by adding new ones (Add
Artifact). You can also examine the properties of specific
artifacts in the diagram (Preview).
You
can set up a diagram using one of the four workflows. Steps are given
for the following workflows:
- Run an analysis by right-clicking over a focus artifact and selecting Start
Analysis.
- Create an analysis diagram from scratch.
- Modify an analysis diagram and then save a copy of the changed
diagram.
- Modify an analysis, but do not save a copy of the changed diagram.
Procedure
- In the main menu, click .
Alternatively, you can create a diagram by right-clicking a focus artifact and selecting
Start Analysis. To start the analysis in a new tab, press control,
right-click a focus artifact, then select Start Analysis.
- In the Impact Analysis dialog box,
set the focus artifact, the configuration, 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.
If you started
the analysis by right-clicking a focus artifact, you can change the
artifact here, if necessary.
- Select a focus configuration.
The configuration
you select is used throughout the diagram to resolve versioned products
and their links. Selecting a configuration is optional. (You do not
need to set a configuration for artifacts, such as work items, test
cases, requirements, and models.)
If you do not set a configuration
for a product, the diagram cannot resolve the versioned products or
select their respective links, so the products and respective links
are not resolved.
If you select a configuration as the Focus
Artifact, the Configuration field
is disabled because the configuration is used as the context configuration.
All product versions with a relationship to the context configuration
are displayed.
Diagrams support one configuration. If other
configurations are encountered as the diagram is drawn, the traversal
stops.
- 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.
- Start the analysis.
The analysis starts and
draws the focus artifact with the artifacts that have a relationship
to it.
- To specify how the analysis traverses artifacts as it builds
the diagram, change the profile in the Traversal tab:
- 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.
After you make any changes to the profile in the Traversal tab,
you can save the changes.
- Click the Focus and Profile tab, and then
click the Save button to the immediate right
of Impact Analysis Profile.
- In the Save Profile dialog box, give the
new profile a name and change the description to match the changes
you made.
If you do not give the profile a new name before you
save, you will overwrite the existing profile with the new settings.
If
you cancel the save, you will lose the changes you made to the profile,
even if you save the diagram.
- 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 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.
- 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 product branch.
- 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 configurations or products by clicking the Find Use icon.