Tag: Link Group

A link group is a named set of link types. If you ask Cradle to search based on a link group, Cradle searches using all of the link types in the link group. When searching the database, following cross references, Cradle only follows those cross references which are tagged with one of the link types in the link group.

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Cradle Modules – PDM

The Cradle PDM module provides the infrastructure for all other Cradle modules. Its scalability and flexibility create an industrial strength, proven, shared data environment for even the largest projects:

Cradle PDM Module
Cradle PDM Module

Databases

Cradle supports any number of databases, each with its own schema, CM system and users. Each database supports many projects. Use the Project Manager tool to organise this environment by user-defined criteria, for example as hierarchies.

Each database stores any number of items, of any number of types (requirements, risks, classes, user stories, functions) defined by a UI. Items have any number of attributes, each of a user-defined type, that manage up to 1 TByte of any type of data, held in Cradle, or referenced in external files, URLs or another tool or environment.

Calculations

User-defined calculations are supported in all parts of Cradle and can be displayed as graphs, in views and user-defined reports. User-defined rules can be applied to automatically set attribute values or perform calculations, to maintain the integrity within and between items.

Cross References

Items can be cross referenced, with optional user-defined link types and groups. Links have user-defined attributes to justify, parametrise, explain or characterise them. You control which links are used to navigate or report traceability, based on link type or group, direction and link attribute values. Links are both direct and indirect, for full lifecycle traceability, impact and coverage analyses.

Process Tailored Environment

You use start pages and a phase hierarchy to build an environment tailored to your process. End users only need to be trained in your interface, reducing training time and costs:

  • Start pages are text and graphics controls that perform your choice of operations simply and easily
  • The phase hierarchy shows the process as a hierarchy in which an agile or phase activity, task, sprint, report or document is run by a mouse click. Different parts of the phase hierarchy can be shown to each user or stakeholder group.

Traceability and coverage views are available as trees, nested and pivot tables, matrices and Hierarchy Diagrams. Unique transitive links give traceability across the full system lifecycle.

Configuration Management

Items evolve through versions that are managed in baselines and controlled by a built-in CM system, with mechanisms for review, baseline and version control, full change control, and audit trails.

Cradle can track all changes. Edits can be reversed selectively or by group. Items can be compared across edits and in baselines. Edits can raise alerts to users, and mark related items as suspect. All edits are permanently available, for change logs.

Adaptations

Cradle provides adaptations to allow variants of items. This mechanism is ideal for databases that contain a library of standard items and projects that use the library, and contribute to it.

Access Controls

Access controls apply to all items based on user roles, privileges, security clearances and skills. Users can be grouped in a hierarchy of teams, to create any access control scheme, such as for customers, subcontractors and IV&V. The creation and manipulation of links can be controlled, by item or user.

Cradle is multi-user. It locks information at item level, with automatic database commit after an edit. This maximises users’ interaction with the database and guarantees all data s up-to-date.

Alerts

Cradle’s alert mechanism sends messages by email (SMTP or IMAP), Cradle or both. Alerts can be selectively enabled and disabled. Alerts track events on items, including edit, review and formal change.

Discussions

The Cradle discussion mechanism allows even read-only users to add comments to items. Four other commenting mechanisms are provided.

Project Planning

Cradle can manage project plans and WBS. User task lists are maintained. WBS structures and progress data can be exchanged bidirectionally with external PM tools. Cradle can generate burn-down and earned-value graphs on any user-defined criterion to monitor progress.

API

Cradle is open and extensible. It provides multiple import/export formats, an API, a user-definable event-driven command interface, interfaces with other tools and bidirectional interfaces to Microsoft Office.

Query and Report Data

Cradle provides uniquely powerful data query and visualisation facilities. Each user’s environment can be tailored by defining custom queries, views, forms, navigations, matrices, reports and other facilities. All customisations have a scope, to be specific to the end user, or shared with other users of the same type (such as all customers or all managers), the user’s team, the entire project, or all projects.

Any desired compliance, coverage or traceability report can be created quickly/easily using Cradle’s queries, multi-row views/nested table view, and saved for later use.

Licensing

Cradle has floating, dynamic licensing and low cost read-only users. Open and named user licences are available. Everything described here is free of charge.

Licences, databases and schemas are interchangeable across Linux and Windows 8.1, 10, 11, Server 2012 R2, 2016 and 2019.

Optional support for Oracle and MySQL.

Feature Summary

Feature Summary - PDM
Feature Summary – PDM

Please contact 3SL for further information about Cradle PDM licences.

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Showing Filtered “Transitive” Links in Tables

Problem

We have created some links between Cradle items but we only want to see a filtered set of these links in our table.

Rationale

Cradle has a unique ability to follow cross references transitively. This means that although an item might not be directly cross referenced from it’s source, it might be linked indirectly through another item/item type.

Cradle also has the ability to name cross references referred to as link types and even group sets of link types together referred to as link groups.

Combining these features can allow flexibility for the output of items that have some relationship to the source which will reduce the number of direct cross references required.

For example, we would like to show dependencies between item type A and item type C but ONLY those that have a yellow and blue link type.

Model showing defined Links Between Item Types
Defined Links Between Item Types

We can see in the screenshot below that only A-6 and A-11 are transitively linked to items of item type C with both a blue and a yellow link:

Showing Direct Links in a Nested Table
Direct Links in a Nested Table

Setting Link Groups

We can define a link group in Project Setup in which we can select from the available link types.

Screenshot showing how to define a link group
Defining Link Groups

This defined link group can be used in navigations.

Defining Navigations

Navigations allow us to specify how we would like to follow the links that have been created between items. This is a very powerful feature as we can also specify that we would like to follow links transitively:

Defining a Navigation to follow Cross References transitively in the Navigation Details Window
Defining Navigations to Follow Cross References Transitively

Using the Navigation in Views

We can now use the navigation to specify that we want to show links between item type A and item type C that are followed transitively but we ONLY want to show the group of links YELLOW AND BLUE. Remember that there are NO DIRECT links between these two item types. The cross references are from item type A to item type B and also from item type B to item type C:

Defining a View to allow links to be shown transitively between item
Using the Transitive Navigation in Views

Applying this view, we can see that only the YELLOW AND BLUE links are shown in the table. The remainder appear blank:

Output of a table that shows links that are transitive when they exist
View Showing Transitive Cross References

Using the Navigation in Queries

We might wish to only show items in our table that have these links in preference to showing all items and just appearing blank where the transitive link does not exist. We can achieve this in the Query Details dialog:

Using the Query Details Window to filter items that do not have any indirect transitive links
Filtering Items Non-Linked Items in a Query

This will now filter out of the list any items that do not match the navigation criteria:

Screenshot showing the resulting table that only shows items where a transitive link exists
Link Table Only Showing Items Where Transitive Link Exists

Showing Path in a Tree Style

If we followed the path in a tree style showing downward links, we can see that item type A (A-6 and A-11) are not directly linked to item type C (C-1). They go through item type B (B-2):

Screenshot showing the direct links between items in a tree style to prove that the items are not directy linked
Links shown in Tree Style

Summary

Cradle provides a unique ability to allow cross references to be followed transitively (through other items).

Transitive navigations can be applied to views and queries. This provides a very powerful filtering mechanism that allows us to show non-direct dependencies between items.