SECollab allows users with the appropriate permission to create project associations. Project associations are a mean for a user with the appropriate persmission
to share the project data with another project from a friend application. In that case, the project is said to "Provide" certain data.
When the user expects to benefit from another project's data, it is said to "Use" that data.
Creating a project association enables a set of standard OSLC link types between the two projects, depending on the association type and the direction of the association ("provides" / "uses"). An association type always connects two OSLC domains for a specific business purpose. Supported OSLC domains in SECollab are Change Management (CM), Requirement Management (RM), and Architecture Management (AM).
Go to the project administration, and select the "Associations" tab. To create a new association, click on the "Add association" button. Select the friend application, followed by the association type, and finally select the target project. Once the modal's "Add association" button is clicked, the association is created.
Associations often go by pairs. When a project "provides" data to another project, that one most often "uses" that data. It is highly recommended to create inverse associations inside the friend application.
Association types are a de facto standard upon IBM's implementation within its Rational CLM suite. Supported association types and the standard link types they enable:
Note: if you decide to remove a project association, links created on your project's resources will remain available.
Standard collaborative links may not necessarily correspond to your business Traceability model, so you can choose to disable specific standard link types by unchecking the "enabled" checkbox in their detail view.
Once the standard link types are enabled, you can create collaborative links between resources. For more information, see the section Creating collaborative links.