Given the complexity of some products, some applications have implemented what is called Configuration Management. When enabled, this feature allows to define different versions of a given artifact and group them in components. Let's say a company wants to create a plane, the complexity would suggest us to split the design, and process in general, in components: the cabin, the wings, etc. Now, the design requirements for such plane to fly on America may be different from those in Europe; by having different versions of the same components (and the artifacts on them) engineers could achieve all this work easier: one version for America, one for Europe.
A configuration is, in this context, a version of a component: as many different component versions a team need to work with, as many configurations they need to create. All this is good up to one wonder what configuration on DOORS Next application should work with what configuration of ETM application? In a collaborative environment, different applications care about different parts of the making process and, in a Configuration-Management-enabled environment, it is important to establish a relationship between configurations (from different applications) that work together, here is where the concept of Global Configuration comes in. A Global Configuration (GC) is a configuration where the artifacts are also configurations... but configurations from different applications (DOORS Next, ETM, etc) that work together. In other words, the global configuration is the mean to define which local configurations work together.
In Windchill, global configuration works differently for parts and change artifacts.
With OSLC Connect for Windchill, we consider that a Windchill product can have at most one component,
with several Local Configurations that can contain a collection of Windchill Parts. A Local Configuration
can then participate to a Global Configuration in the GCM application. We say that Windchill
products are Global Configuration participant for the Architecture Management domain, which is the closest supported OSLC domain for Product Lifecycle Management.
First, you will need to Enable OSLC Configuration Management on the Windchill product. If you don't, Windchill users won't be able to create links from Parts to ELM Applications with Configuration Management enabled.
Then, you can Create Local Configurations of the Windchill product. We do not allow direct use of Local Configurations within Windchill. To make use of a product Local Configuration, it must be added to a Global Configuration. See how to Configure GCM with a Windchill local configuration.
With these steps done, it is now possible to create or display collaboration links from a Windchill Part in the context of any GC of your choosing.
In addition, it is often the case that a specific Windchill Part version is created in relation to specific versions of requirements and/or quality management artifacts. In order to capture the exact artifact versions as they were when the Part version was created and/or validated, it is possible to save a GC as the Nominal Configuration of a Part version.
Note that it is possible for some Parts to have no versions that are participating in the selected Global Configuration. In such a case,
remote artifacts will not be able to navigate to this Part. However, it is still possible to create and display links from a Part version, as well as saving
a Nominal Configuration. In other words, it means that when a Part is not participating to a Global Configuration, it
behaves as a Global Configuration compatible artifact.
It does not make sense to have different versions of a change artifact, but OSLC Connect for Windchill makes possible to create
Collaboration Links to OSLC-enabled applications that do. We say that Windchill products are Global Configuration compatible
for the Change Management domain.
This is done by allowing the association of the change artifacts to maximum 2 GC, identified by labels
Found in global configuration and Planned for global configuration.
By having this association, a Windchill Change Management artifact can be linked to remote versioned artifacts,
depending on the 2 GC associated; the Collaboration Link type is used to determine which GC is applying. To add the global configuration capability on a
Windchill Change Management artifact you need to care of:
If you don't apply this configuration, Windchill users won't be able to create outgoing links from Change Management artifacts to ELM Applications with Configuration Management enabled. By applying it, Windchill users will still be able to create outgoing links from Change Management artifacts to ELM Applications with Configuration Management disabled.