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Maintenance

In the course of your team's work on a model, changes and issues can arise at a number of levels, for problems that apply system-wide through areas of the model and down to within a specific element. A Change, very broadly, defines an addition or alteration to a requirement, whilst an Issue identifies either a failure to meet a requirement, or a risk in meeting the requirement.

There are two mechanisms that can be used to identify a change or issue, and the work required to resolve it:

Change and Issue (or Defect) elements - structured comments that identify a problem at system-level, although they can also be attached to a specific element from which a problem arises; both types of element can be linked to one or more other elements that have to be reviewed, with relationships such as Association, Dependency and Realize, and for complex problems can also form hierarchies or groups

Maintenance items - properties raised against a specific element, and recorded for that element in the Maintenance window; these provide a distinction between Defects (a failure to meet a requirement) and Issues (a risk factor that might affect satisfying the requirement) and also include Tasks, which record work items associated with the element

Maintenance items are very specific, but if an item begins to have a wider impact on other elements or the system in general, you can translate that item into a Change, Issue, or any other type of element that best identifies the problem and its solution

Maintenance items are defects, changes, issues, tasks, events and decisions that apply at the model element level. They are properties of individual model elements that can be used to record and capture problems, changes, issues, tasks, events and decisions as they arise, and document the solution and associated details.

Maintenance Tasks

Task Area	Detail	See also
Maintenance Items - Element-level	You create maintenance items in the Maintenance window, and using the 'Item Details' dialog. Typically you create: A defect to record a failure to meet a requirement for the current model element A change to record a change in requirement for the current model element An issue to record a risk factor that might affect the project being recorded for the current model element A task to record work in progress and work outstanding for the current model element An event to record the action taken for the current model element A decision to record the choice taken for the current model element	Create Maintenance Items Working on Maintenance Items
Creating and Editing Maintenance Items	Tasks that you might perform when working with maintenance items include: Moving or copying maintenance items between maintenance types, or generate new items of one type from an item of a different type Create elements from maintenance Items Show maintenance items on elements in a diagram Add a maintenance item directly to an element via in-place editing Generate a report on the status of maintenance items of specific types or all types	Move or Copy Maintenance Items Maintenance Report Create Elements From Maintenance Items Insert Maintenance Feature Show Maintenance Items in Diagram
Maintenance - System-level	To represent changes, defects and issues that apply to the model you can create Change and Issue elements with - if necessary - subordinate structures. To represent issues and tasks that apply to the progress of the project as a whole and that are not related to model structures, you create Project Status records in Project Management.	The Project Status View Maintenance Diagram Changes, Defects and Issues

Task Area

Detail