Understanding Collaboration and Approvals and Process Composer

Lifecycles

A simulation object and its contents are promoted through a sequence of states as it moves through its lifecycle. A policy defines the lifecycle of an object and the conditions required to move through each state. The state of a simulation object determines which people can access the object and the actions they can perform. The sequence of states is configured by the Simulation Host Administrator. For example, a simulation process might start its lifecycle in the Private state and move into the Released state when it is ready to be used by others, as shown in the figure below:

The role of an Process Composer user determines whether they can change the lifecycle state of a simulation object. For example, a manager or reviewer may be the only user that can promote a simulation process to the complete state.

You can see the current state for a simulation object from its Lifecycle page, which shows the following:

All of the states in the object's lifecycle.
The current state of the object.
The signature requirements for promotion from each state and any signature that has been applied.

To display the Lifecycle page, search for and select the object and select Lifecycle from its navigation pane. Lifecycles are described in more detail in Lifecycles in the 3DEXPERIENCE Web Apps - Classic Guide.

Revisions

You can change the revision of a simulation process or its components. Process Composer retains all of your revisions, and users can search for them and retrieve them. The description that accompanies a revision allows users to trace and understand why a revision was made.

For example, if the designer changes the thickness of a part, you can create a new revision of a simulation process. Similarly, if a material property is changed, you can create a new revision of the file that stores the material data. However, in many cases you may want to create a new simulation process or a new file. Your company's policies determine when you should create a revision of a simulation object and when you should create a new object.

The active revision is the revision of a simulation object that is actively in use. The active revision may not be the highest revision. For example, you might create a new revision of a simulation process; however, you do not want other users to use this new revision until you have tested it and released it to other users. A revision of a simulation object becomes the active revision, when the user chooses it from the Select Revision page.

Creating a revision is a manual operation; Process Composer never creates a revision for you. You should create a new revision after a significant change to a simulation.

The Revisions page displays a table of all the revisions that have been made to a simulation object and includes the description that accompanies each revision. The table includes the revisions to the object that you own or to which you have read access. A icon in the Remarks column indicates that a higher revision of the object exists. Process Composer displays the icon only if you own the higher revision or have access rights to see the higher revision.

To display the Revisions page, search for and select the object and select Revisions from its navigation pane.

History

When you display the history of a simulation process, Process Composer display a list of all the actions that have been performed on the process. An action can be any of the following:

The simulation process was created, modified, promoted, or revised.
The owner was changed.
A relationship was created between two objects.

The list of actions also displays the following:

The date of the action.
The user that performed the action.
The lifecycle state of the object during the action.
A description of the action; for example, the old owner and the new owner.

You can view the history of a simulation process or of its components.

You can see a list of all the actions that have been performed on a simulation object from its History page. The History page provides filters that allow you to view more specific information. You can filter on the following:

The action type, such as create, modify, or change owner. You can choose from all the action types in the object's history.
Text that appears in any column except the Action Types column. For example, to filter the list so it shows only events performed by the user "Joe", enter *Joe*.

To display the History page search for and select the object and select History from its navigation pane. History is described in more detail in Viewing History for Content in the 3DEXPERIENCE Web Apps - Classic Guide.

Access

Process Composer provides multiple owner access control to most simulation objects. The access rights that are granted to you are determined from your credentials. The credentials, in turn, are defined by a combination of your business role, organization, and collaborative space.

Business role: A business role defines the activity of a person for a given business process. A business role provides access to data and functions controlled by a policy.
Organization: An organization is a collection of persons that models a business organization, such as a company or department. Persons in an organization share access to simulation objects.
Collaborative Space: A collaborative space is a collection of persons working on a common project, such as a design team. Persons in a collaborative space share access to simulation objects.

You can see the access rights to an object from the object's Access View page. To display the Access View page, do either of the following:

Display the object in the navigation pane and table page, and select Multiple Owner Access from the navigation pane. You can select multiple objects and grant the same access to all of the objects.
Toggle on referenced documents in the Content page, and select Multiple Owner Access from the navigation pane.

Lock and Unlock

A locked simulation process or simulation activity can be modified only by its owner. For example, you might lock a simulation process when you are waiting for an engineer to provide new prescribed conditions.

To lock and unlock a simulation object, display the object in the navigation pane and table pages, select Context from the navigation pane, and select More Actions > Lock/Unlock from the table page toolbar.

Routes

A route is a set of tasks that users follow to complete a simulation. A route can contain content that helps a route member complete their assigned tasks.

For example, a methods developer could create routes that force team members to review and approve a simulation process and its content as they progress from development through implementation and completion. A route could ask a materials engineer to approve the material properties; a second route could ask an analyst to approve the finite element mesh, and a third route could ask a structural engineer to approve the results of the simulation.

Routes are available from the navigation pane for simulation processes, simulation activities, experiences (simulation process or simulation activity), attribute groups, and simulation documents (both versioned and non-versioned). If you create an experience from a simulation process or simulation activity that includes a route, the route options are captured by the experience. As a result, a new simulation process or simulation activity that is created by instantiating the experience will be governed by a route that is derived from the original route. The new route is created in the Not Started state.

For more information about routes, see Routes in the Collaboration and Approvals User's Guide Guide.

Requirements

Requirements allow an organization to capture specifications that apply to simulations, such as corporate or industry standards. You can capture and import requirements from an external specification, work with traceability reports related to requirement specifications, and manage decisions made about proposed requirements. You can also perform various functions associated with the management of requirements, such as defining and modifying tasks and promoting tasks to the next level for approval.

You use Traceable Requirements Management to create requirements. For example, you could specify requirements for the performance of a simulation, such as the maximum stress and deflection in a part. Similarly, you could specify additional requirements that refer to the results of testing the physical part.

In a typical organization a requirement is created by a product manager, a marketing representative, or a field service representative. Some organizations will also allow a customer to create a requirement.

To work on a requirement, the user must be assigned the correct credentials. A user with the appropriate credentials can do the following:

Create and modify requirements
Define a structure of subrequirements
Copy requirements
Determine if a requirement has been satisfied
View revisions, version, traceability reports, and reports of where a requirement is used
Manage the people assigned to work on a requirement
Import requirement information from Microsoft Word^® documents or Excel^® spreadsheets
Run traceability reports to ensure that requirements are properly accounted for and being satisfied
Create and manage use cases and test cases

To create a requirement, select Add > Requirements > Create Requirement from the top bar. You can add a requirement as referenced content of a simulation process or a simulation activity. See About Referenced Content for more information. You can specify that the requirement should be set as input to the simulation process or simulation activity. See Displaying the Content of a Simulation Process and Displaying the Content of a Simulation Activity for more information.

Note: You can also add a test case, a use case, or a chapter as referenced content of a simulation process or a simulation activity.

If you specify that the requirement should be set as input and the requirement is modified, the simulation process or simulation activity will appear as out of date in an impact graph. See About Impact Graphs for more information. You can determine which simulation processes and simulation activities are referring to a requirement.

You can also refer to a simulation process or a simulation process experience from within a Traceable Requirements Management requirement. For more information, see Requirements, Test Cases, and Simulation Processes.

Requirements are described in detail in the Traceable Requirements Management User's Guide.

Issues

You can store issues relating to a simulation process, simulation activity, or experience. Issues allow you to track questions or problems over the lifecycle of a simulation object.

To create an issue, select Add > Issues > Create Issue from the top bar. To display the Issues page, search for and select the object and select Issues from its navigation pane. Issues are described in more detail in Issues in the Collaboration and Approvals User's Guide Guide.

Images

You can associate images with a simulation object. Images allow you to quickly identify an object such as a file containing a CAD part or a contour plot. You can use Images category of the navigation pane to upload an image into a simulation process or simulation activity. You can view the primary image that is associated with a simulation object from the Image column of the Content page.

To display the Images page, search for and select the object and select Images from its navigation pane. See About Images for more information. Images are also described in Images Page in the Collaboration and Approvals User's Guide Guide.