SERENA ®

DIMENSIONS CM 12.2.1 ®

Getting Started Guide

Serena Proprietary and Confidential Information
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Mashup Composer, Mashup Exchange, Prototype Composer, Mariner and ChangeMan are
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Any Software product acquired by Licensee under this Agreement for or on behalf of the
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manufacturer is Serena Software, Inc., 1900 Seaport Boulevard, 2nd Floor, Redwood City,
California 94063-5587.

Publication date: July 2012

Table of Contents

Welcome to Serena Dimensions CM . . . . . . . . . 7

Typographical Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Printing Manuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Platform Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Demonstrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Contacting Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Chapter 1 What You can do with Dimensions CM . . . . . . . 11

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Manage Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Requirements Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Manage Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Lifecycles and Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Rules and Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Inboxes and Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Electronic Signatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Control Your Assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Projects and Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Design Parts and Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Control Your Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Tracking Issues and Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Packaging Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Baselines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Deployment Stages and Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Control and Manage Your Builds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Configuring Builds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Controlling Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Chapter 2 The Dimensions CM Process Model . . . . . . . . . . 29

About the Process Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
The Components of the Process Model . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Getting Started Guide 3

Table of Contents

Object Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Defining Object Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Lifecycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Sensitive Attributes and States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
CM Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Upload Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Roles & Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Users and Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Differences Between Roles and Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Area Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Dimensions Build . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Chapter 3 The Components of Dimensions CM . . . . . . . . . 43

Dimensions Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Dimensions CM Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Other Client Tools and Plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
IDE Integrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Administration Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Dimensions Build . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Integration with Dimensions CM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Difference Between Mainframe and Other Platforms . . . 50
Developer Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
C/C++ API DTK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Java API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Scripts and Templates for Remote Job Execution. . . . . . 52
Web Services API and ALF Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Replicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Dimensions CM ART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Reports and Published Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
The Documentation Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Online Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

4 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Table of Contents

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Getting Started Guide 5

Table of Contents

6 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Welcome to Serena
Dimensions CM
Thank you for choosing Serena® Dimensions® CM, the configuration
management component of Dimensions. Dimensions CM is a powerful
process management and change control system that will revolutionize
the way you develop software. Dimensions CM helps you organize,
manage, and protect your software development projects on every
level—from storing and tracking changes to individual files, to managing
and monitoring an entire development cycle.

About Serena Dimensions CM is the principal component of the integrated components

Dimensions that constitute the Serena Dimensions product. Other components
include:
 Dimensions Express, which is an advanced SCM tool that is tailored
to the needs of the developer, and has particular strengths in parallel
development and performance. Dimensions Express helps you to
organize, manage, and protect your software development projects
on every level—from storing changes to individual files, to managing
entire projects.
Dimension Express provides a focused subset of the functionality
available with Dimensions CM. Additional functionality provided
exclusively by Dimensions CM includes:
• Issue (request) management.
• Process management.
• Deployment management.
• Release management.
• Build management.
• Replication.
• Release management.
• z/OS client.
 Serena Dimensions RM, which offers full requirements management
and traceability throughout the development lifecycle by centralizing

Getting Started Guide 7

Welcome to Serena Dimensions CM

and organizing requirements using role base views and a user

configurable requirements process.

NOTE Only Dimensions CM can be used in conjunction with

Dimensions RM; Dimensions Express cannot.

Purpose of this This manual is an introduction to Dimensions CM. It provides a

manual conceptual overview of what Dimensions CM can do, the process model
and its basic elements. It also describes the components and tools that
form the Dimensions CM product set.

For more Refer to the Dimensions CM User's Guide for a description of the client
information tools and how to work with them. Refer to the Dimensions CM Process
Modeling User's Guide for more details of the components of the process
model and how to configure them.

Edition status The information in this guide applies to Release 12.2.1 of Serena®
Dimensions® CM. This edition supersedes earlier editions of this manual.

Typographical Conventions
The following typographical conventions are used in the online manuals
and online help. These typographical conventions are used to assist you
when using the documentation; they are not meant to contradict or
change any standard use of typographical conventions in the various
product components or the host operating system.

italics Introduces new terms that you may not be familiar

with and occasionally indicates emphasis.
bold Emphasizes important information and field names.
UPPERCASE Indicates keys or key combinations that you can use.
For example, press the ENTER key.
monospace Indicates syntax examples, values that you specify,
or results that you receive.
monospaced Indicates names that are placeholders for values you
italics specify; for example, filename.

8 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Printing Manuals

monospace Indicates the results of an executed command.

bold
vertical rule | Separates menus and their associated commands.
For example, select File | Copy means to select Copy
from the File menu.
Also, indicates mutually exclusive choices in a
command syntax line.
brackets [] Indicates optional items. For example, in the
following statement: SELECT [DISTINCT],
DISTINCT is an optional keyword.
... Indicates command arguments that can have more
than one value.

Printing Manuals
As part of your Dimensions license agreement, you may print and
distribute as many copies of the Dimensions manuals as needed for your
internal use, so long as you maintain all copies in strict confidence and
take all reasonable steps necessary to ensure that the manuals are not
made available or disclosed to anyone who is not authorized to access
Dimensions under your Dimensions license agreement.

Platform Support
For details of supported server and client platforms, third party
integrations, and Serena Integrations , see the Serena Release Plan for
Dimensions CM at:

http://support.serena.com/Roadmap/
Product.aspx?sel=PVDIMENSIONS

and select the link for your release.

Getting Started Guide 9

Welcome to Serena Dimensions CM

Demonstrations
Demonstrations of Dimensions CM features can be viewed at the
following public Web site:

http://www.serena.com/serenacourseware/dimensions

Contacting Technical Support

Serena provides technical support for all registered users of this product,
including limited installation support for the first 30 days. If you need
support after that time, contact Serena Support at the following URL and
follow the instructions:

http://support.serena.com/

Language-specific technical support is available during local business

hours. For all other hours, technical support is provided in English.

The Serena Support web page can also be used to:

 Report problems and ask questions.
 Obtain up-to-date technical support information, including that
shared by our customers via the Web, automatic e-mail notification,
newsgroups, and regional user groups.
 Access a knowledge base, which contains how-to information and
allows you to search on keywords for technical bulletins.
 Download fix releases for your Serena products.

10 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Chapter 1
What You can do with
Dimensions CM

In this Chapter
Overview 12
Manage Applications 12
Manage Workflow 15
Control Your Assets 16
Control Your Changes 19
Control and Manage Your Builds 26

Getting Started Guide 11

Chapter 1 What You can do with Dimensions CM

Overview
This chapter describes what Serena® Dimensions® CM can enable your
company to do. Dimensions CM is a change, configuration, build, and
release management product. Serena Dimensions CM offers major
advantages in usability, performance, support for modern development
methods, and much more.

Manage Applications
Dimensions enables you to manage assets, processes, and change across
a whole enterprise. It does this by:
 Enforcing your best practices.
 Ensuring workflow through established checkpoints and approvals.
 Providing auditability and traceability.
 Providing advanced reporting and metric capabilities.
 Enabling the reuse of assets and best practices for higher
productivity and efficiency.

With Dimensions you can control, track, and configure the items that
comprise your application. These could be the files within a software
product or could be other types of asset. A software product, for
example, can easily consist of many thousands of hardware, software
and documentation items. These are all stored under Dimensions as
versioned items.

The projects that are typically undertaken can be configured to contain

different components of your product that are developed separately by
different teams, or different versions of the same component developed
in parallel. You can use Dimensions products to contain portions of your
application that are developed independently, and you can structure a
product into functional subdivisions called design parts that can be
related in a hierarchical structure. Products are contained within a base
database and you can have different products within that single
database. These products can be tailored to have parts of their process
models defined differently, for example they could follow different

12 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Manage Applications

development lifecycles or have different types of item. The diagram

below illustrates an example of how this might be structured.

The main components are:

 Base database: This a basic instance of a Dimensions process
model. The process model defines a collection of rules that govern
the development of applications.
 Product: This is a major unit of development. Some of the rules in
the process model can be configured differently from one product to
another.
 Design Part: This is a logical subdivision of a product. Design parts
can be subdivided into smaller parts that are all related in a
hierarchy. They form a breakdown of the product into smaller
functional components.
 Item: This is a file or other type of asset that logically belongs to a
design part, such as a source file or a design document.
 Item Revision: This is a specific version of an item, and it is
identified by its revision number.
 Project: This is a type of container for a part of the product that is
under development. For example it could be a UNIX version of the
applications portion of the Payroll product for the Version 2 Release.

Getting Started Guide 13

Chapter 1 What You can do with Dimensions CM

This project would contain particular versions of the items that have
been developed for that purpose.
 Stream: A stream is a type of container for development work
similar to a project, but is used to isolate work on features developed
by different sprint teams. For an explanation of the difference
between projects and streams, see "Projects and Streams" on page
16.

As an example, consider a company that produces a number of software

products, one of which is a payroll system. The payroll system could be
configured as a Dimensions product, with the company’s other products
configured as separate Dimensions products. Logically this product
consists of three applications: Bonus, Holiday, and Tax Calculations.
These three parts could be worked on by three separate project teams.
They could be defined as three design parts.

When changes are made to enhance the product or fix bugs, the different
versions of these items need to be tracked and controlled so that the
correct versions are configured into a build of the product for testing and
releasing to users and customers.

Requirements Management
You can optionally use the Requirements Management tool Dimensions
RM to define requirements and link these to the components of your
Dimensions products that are affected by them.

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 Manage Workflow

Manage Workflow
Manage Workfow Consists of the following topics:

Lifecycles and Attributes

Items, requests, projects/streams, and other types of Dimensions
objects have lifecycles associated with them to enable them to follow a
path of approved states. You can define different types of objects and
have them follow different lifecycles. You can set up the necessary
privileges required to determine which users are allowed to action
(promote) an object through a given state transition.

A Dimensions object can have a number of attributes that store

information about it, for example creation date, status, etc. You can
configure these attributes so that only certain users can update them at
specified lifecycle states.

Rules and Privileges

The permissions to make changes within the database can be controlled
so that different individuals have those permissions for different parts of
the product, or for different types of object. You can:
 Assign users or groups of users and grant them privileges to perform
certain actions, such as create, update, etc. under a given set of
conditions (rules).
 Assign the authority to action objects for different stages in the
lifecycle.

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Chapter 1 What You can do with Dimensions CM

Inboxes and Notifications

When an item, request or other object is awaiting some action by a user
it appears in their inbox. You can view your inboxes for each class of
object in the Dimensions GUIs. You may only be able to perform certain
actions on an object provided it is in your inbox.

Dimensions has a sophisticated facility for configuring email notifications

that can be sent to users when certain events occur. You can determine
the conditions under which an e-mail is triggered and which users will
receive it. Dimensions can “Digest” multiple messages to reduce the
number of emails sent.

Electronic Signatures
In some environments it may be desirable to have an electronic
signature applied, either when a particular type of object is actioned to a
certain state in its lifecycle, or a particular attribute of an object is
updated. Dimensions has the ability to define authentication points, at
which the user making the change must re-enter their user name and
password in order to perform the action. There is a stored audit trail of all
such attempts at authentication by users.

Control Your Assets

Control Your Assets consists of the following topics:

Projects and Streams

Dimensions allows you to use projects or streams to organize the
different areas of development. The files for a particular strand of
development are stored in Dimensions as items under Version Control.
Each project or stream has a folder structure in which these items are
organized.

Projects and streams differ in the ways of working for which they are
designed and the Dimensions CM functions that you use to work with
them. Streams have been designed to be better suited to collaborative
development using a "copy, modify, merge" process, where the

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 Control Your Assets

developer works on a copy of the files in their work area, and then
delivers the changes back to the repository. Projects are more
appropriate to a "lock, modify, unlock" development process, where a
developer checks out the files before making their changes.

You can configure your process model to allow users to work with: only
projects, only streams, both projects and streams.

Projects
Dimensions CM projects are better suited to more traditional software
development methodologies, and non-software uses such as
documentation, hardware assets etc.

Projects differ from streams in that you can perform operations on

idividual files, such as check out and check in. You can also have parallel
versions of the same code in a project because there can be more than
one tip revision of the same item. You can carry out different strands of
development work in the same project by associating a different branch
name for versions of the same items within it. Projects can also be
related in a hierarchical structure together with other parent and child
projects.

Streams
Streams, and the features that are intended for working with them, are
designed for carrying out small amounts of change and integrating them
with the main body of code before starting on a new set of changes.
Streams differ from projects in that you do not perform operations on
individual items in the repository, but you copy a complete set of files,
make changes, and deliver them back to the repository after building and
testing the code. Streams facilitate an iterative development process
where the developers resolve any conflicts and build and test the
application in their work areas before committing those changes to the
repository.

Streams enforce a single line of descent. They do not contain parallel

branches of the same items, and therefore it is easy to build working
code from the tip revisions at any point in time.

Tip Baselines
When it has reached some state of completion or milestone, the contents
of a project or stream can be frozen to preserve the versions of the items

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Chapter 1 What You can do with Dimensions CM

within it. You do this in Dimensions by creating tip baselines. In the case
of a project, this can include one or more of its sub projects. Projects can
contain baselines as well as other projects as subcomponents in their
hierarchical structures.

A tip baseline:
 Captures the state of the files in the complete project hierarchy.
 Captures the relationships and paths of related components.
 Captures the design part structure that spans the files in the baseline
automatically.
 In the case of projects, if other projects or baselines have child
relationships to the project being baselined then they are themselves
included in the baseline

When a project is created from a baseline, the original hierarchical

structure is restored. You can begin a new phase of development by
creating a new project from a baseline.

Optimistic Locking
Dimensions supports optimistic locking. Optimistic locking enables you to
check a file in without first having checked it out. Dimensions maintains
metadata in the client working location to record the changes that have
occurred in relation to the database. You can enforce security by using
Change Management rules to specify that a user requires a request in
order to update an item in the database.

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 Control Your Changes

Design Parts and Roles

Identifying the design parts of your product enables you to relate items
and requests to that part of the product to which they apply and group
them together.

Within parts of a product, you may want to restrict the ability to perform
certain actions and changes to certain individuals within a team.
Subdividing the product into design parts enables you to assign the roles
for these tasks to different individuals for each component.

Design Parts and roles

Control Your Changes

Control Your Changes consists of the following topics:

Tracking Issues and Enhancements

There are two change tracking systems that you can use in
Dimensions CM. You can use requests that are controlled within

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Chapter 1 What You can do with Dimensions CM

Dimensios CM and requests that are provided from Serena Business

Mashups (SBM). You track issues, bug reports, or enhancement
requirements in Dimensions using these requests. You can manage the
changes to items by relating groups of items and requests together.
Items, i.e. versioned files, can be related to requests as Affected,
meaning that a new version needs to be created in order to satisfy the
requirements of that request. The new versions of items that have been
created are related as In response to the request meaning that the items
are being updated to satisfy its requirement. You can relate groups of
requests to a parent request, and thus track all the items involved as a
set of related changes.

With Dimensions CM requests (but not with SBM requests) a frozen

configuration of items can be created as a baseline by including or
excluding the items related to a set of requests together with other
selection criteria, such as the request’s status. This means that the
configuration for a particular strand of development can be recorded and
recreated.

Packaging Requests
Also, with Dimensions CM requests, a useful way of including the correct
items for a build is by packaging them together using a single parent
request or requirement. You can also use requests to merge a set of
changes from one project or stream into another.

These changes can be related to a request in a number of different ways:

 Files to be updated can be directly related to the request.
 The request can consist of other related child requests to form a
hierarchy.
 The request can have various types of other requests (defects/
enhancements/issues etc.) related to it with their associated related
items.

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 Control Your Changes

The package request also has a lifecycle to reflect the approval process
for the set of changes.

The package request might, for example, move from the “Planning” state
to “Under Work”. Developers fix issues, relating the changed files to the
requests. The items to which the requests are related are therefore
included in the package request. If say, during development, the
Development manager realizes one enhancement will not make the build
date, it can be unrelated from the request.

The changes can then be built and when all work is complete the package
request can be moved to state “QA”.

Baselines
In Dimensions, you can create a baseline, which is a frozen configuration
of the versions of items that went into a particular deployment of a
project/stream or strand of development. You can create a baseline in
conjunction with a template that defines which types of item and which
versions are included. A baseline can be used to create a new project or
stream from which another development can begin.

Getting Started Guide 21

Chapter 1 What You can do with Dimensions CM

You can create a revised baseline which consists of an existing baseline

to which a delivered set of requests has been applied, so that versions of
the items created in response to those requests are captured in a new
baseline.

Deployment Stages and Areas

Work Areas
As a developer, you can associate a project or stream with an area on
your local disc, or an area located on another part of the network, so that
when you check out the items under development, they are copied to
that area and are under the required folder/directory structure. This area
is referred to as a work area. A user can associate their own separate
area with a project/stream or associate an area which is shared by a
team.

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 Control Your Changes

Such areas can also be defined under Dimensions CM control in the

Administration Console by associating them with a Dimensions CM
defined network node and folder location.

Deployment Areas
Dimensions has the facility to allow a project manager to define
deployment areas for projects/streams whose items have reached a
particular stage of development. The term deployment in Dimensions CM
refers to the process of copying item files to a controlled location when
they have reached a particular stage of development. You can define
stages in your software development lifecycle, such as "Development",
"QA", "LIVE", and you can have item files automatically copied to the
associated areas when they have reached the corresponding state of
approval for that particular stage.

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Chapter 1 What You can do with Dimensions CM

The example below shows a sample GSL with five stages from
development (DEV) to production (LIVE), with two disk areas assigned to
each stage:

This process of approval is called promotion and is linked to the Global

Stage Lifecycle (GSL). The GSL is the lifecycle that items follow through
the deployment process, and deployment areas are associated with these
stages. There is one single GSL defined for the base database, but you
can change this or configure your own GSL. Stages in this lifecycle can,
optionally, also be associated with the lifecycle states defined for
different types of object, described in "Lifecycles and Attributes" on page

24 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Control Your Changes

15 above, so that the two processes can be linked.

Developers do not manually check items in or out of these areas but they
can be viewed and accessed from within the GUI interfaces.

These Deployment areas can have filters applied to determine the types
of files they will contain, so that, for example, you could have different
areas for versions of the software for different operating systems.

When items are promoted to a stage, you can choose to have them
automatically deployed to one or more areas associated with that stage
by defining them as default areas, or you can have the option of
deploying them manually later. The deployments can also be scheduled
to take place at a specified time in the future.

You can promote:

 Files—versions of individual files can be selectively promoted to the
required stage and copied to the corresponding promotion area.
 Requests—A request can be promoted so that the versions of the
item files created in response to that request are also promoted, and
optionally deployed to the promotion area when the request is
promoted to that stage. You can have the child requests also
automatically promoted when the parent request is promoted. This
means that a request can be used to deploy a controlled "package" of
changes to the designated areas when they are ready. Refactoring
changes, such as the renaming or moving of files, can also be
deployed using this method.
 Baselines—A frozen configuration of items can be promoted from
one stage to another so that its item files are peomoted and copied
to the deployment area when the baseline is promoted.

You can configure scripts to perform chosen tasks whenever files are
deployed to the area. There can be separate scripts for before and after
an area is populated, and for when an error condition occurs. For
example, you could run a script to tidy up the area before the files are
copied to it, and you could perform a build of the software after the
deployment has taken place. Dimensions maintains full audit trails for
these operations.

Deployment jobs can be viewed and managed using the Deployment tab
in the web client. Deployent of files can be re-scheduled to occur at
specified times in the future, and can be rolled back or cancelled.

Getting Started Guide 25

Chapter 1 What You can do with Dimensions CM

For Comprehensive details about how to use Dimensions CM deployment,

see the Deployment Guide.

Control and Manage Your Builds

Control and Manage Your Builds consists of the following topics:

Configuring Builds
Dimensions incorporates a comprehensive Build Management tool that:
 Allows version control of build configuration information (allows
repeatable builds).
 Enables building of selected deployment areas, work areas, and
baselines.
 Supports execution and scheduling of remote builds.
 Can gather bills of materials and preserve targets.

You can have builds performed automatically when the items involved
have reached a particular stage in their lifecycle. You can also select
different targets to be built for versions of your project intended for
different platforms. Dimensions has its own build engine to perform the
builds or you can use other build engines such as OpenMake, Ant, GNU
Make etc. allowing easy integration with existing build scripts and
engines.

Dimensions CM also provides integrations for CruiseControl and Ant

which are more suitable for agile customers using streams.

that you can use to access Dimensions CM functionality from within an

Ant build script.

Controlling Releases
After deployment and testing, copies of a particular configuration of the
product can be captured as a baseline and made available as a release.

26 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Control and Manage Your Builds

For example, when a baseline passes product and system testing, it is

considered ready and can be released to customers using the Dimensions
release management facilities. These facilities allow a full or delta
configuration of a product to be fetched from the Dimensions repository
to your selected release location.

You can use release templates that can be applied to a baseline in order
to filter the configuration of items that are pertinent for a particular
release, and optionally change the directory/folder path mapping.

Getting Started Guide 27

Chapter 1 What You can do with Dimensions CM

28 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Chapter 2
The Dimensions CM Process
Model

In this Chapter
About the Process Model 30
Defining Object Types 34
Roles & Privileges 39
Area Management 40
Dimensions Build 41

Getting Started Guide 29

Chapter 2 The Dimensions CM Process Model

About the Process Model

This chapter provides a conceptual overview of the Dimensions process
model and the basic components and features involved. For a more
detailed description, see the Process Modeling User’s Guide.

The Dimensions process model enables you to control the way you
develop software or manage assets. The functional areas that
Dimensions enables you to manage are shown below.

30 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 About the Process Model

The Components of the Process Model

About Base Databases

The basic instance of a Dimensions process model is a base database. A
single Dimensions CM server can connect to multiple RDBMS instances
and these database instances can also be hosted on machines distinct
from the Dimensions CM server, if needed. Within a single database
instance, you can choose to divide up your applications being managed
into what Dimensions CM calls base databases. In implementation terms,
a base database is a schema, for example, in Oracle each base database
is an Oracle user with their own copy of the Dimensions CM schema.

You may decide to create different base databases to separate out

different applications due to security concerns or simply because the
applications are following very different processes.

About Products
Within that base database there can be one or more products. A product
is a high-level container for related development projects, for example,
in your in-house environment you could create a single application called
"ACME LEGER". Some aspects of the development process/workflow can
then be customized on a per-product basis (for example, Dimensions CM
object types, rules, attributes, and functional component breakdown).

Within a single product, many development efforts may be in progress

(sometimes in parallel) and Dimensions CM calls these containers
projects or streams. So, perhaps in-house, you might have a
Dimensions CM project or stream called "ACME 10" and another one
called "ACME 11". With respect to these projects/streams, you can then
perform Dimensions CM operations such as:
 Updating your work area with changes and delivering changes back
to the repository.
 Raising defects.
 Implementing requirements.
 Building and deploying software.

Getting Started Guide 31

Chapter 2 The Dimensions CM Process Model

Dimensions CM Objects
Each product has a set of Dimensions object classes that can be
configured with their own properties, such as lifecycles, attributes, or
relationships with other objects. The diagram below shows these objects
and the part they play in the process model.

Product: This is a major subdivision of the process model, the objects

that you configure belong to the product in which they are defined.

Design part: A design part is a logical part of the functional breakdown

of the product and design parts are related to one another in a hierarchy.
When a product is first created it automatically has a top-level design
part of the same name as the product.

Item: An item represents an asset, for example a source file, that forms
a part of the implementation of your product. It belongs to, or is owned

32 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 About the Process Model

by, a particular design part, although it could be reused by other design

parts. The item itself is a logical representation of the asset.

Item revision: This is a specific version of an item. Item revisions are

identified by having a version appended to the name of the item. This
version consists of a version number, optionally preceded by a branch. An
item revision usually has an item file associated with it. The physical file
is stored in an item library and can be located on a different machine to
the one that hosts the base database.

Project/Stream: A project or stream represents a collection of item

revisions that form a strand of development of part of the product. The
item revisions are related in a folder structure which reflects the
organized structure in which the files belong.

A user works with a project using commands that operate on specific

files, such as check out, check in, and so on, whereas when working with
streams the user copies sets of files to and from the stream in the
repository using commands such as update and deliver. A project can
contain multiple revisions of each item and can have one or more
branches associated with it. A stream contains only one branch of
revisions for each item.

Baseline: A baseline consists of a snapshot of a collection of item

revisions that is used to capture a particular milestone in the
development of the project or stream. A tip baseline captures the latest
item revisions in a project/stream at the point that it is taken. A release
baseline is created by applying a baseline template to a project/stream
or design part. The baseline template is a set of rules that you define,
and you can create different baseline templates for this purpose. The
template can contain rules based on the type, the lifecycle state, and
other properties that determine which item revisions are included in the
baseline.

Release: A release is created by applying a release template to a

baseline in order to copy the item files for some or all of the items in the
baseline to a particular location. You define release templates in a similar
way to baseline templates.

Customer: A customer is a logical record of a company or organization

to whom a release has been supplied, or forwarded to.

Request: A request represents an enhancement or fault that has been

recorded against the product. It affects one or more design parts, and
can affect one or more item revisions.

Getting Started Guide 33

Chapter 2 The Dimensions CM Process Model

Requirement: A requirement is created in Dimensions RM and is

associated with a Dimensions project. It is visible in Dimensions CM and
you can relate requests to requirements.

Object Relationships
Dimensions CM objects can have various types of relationships that help
you group, search and control these objects. For example a request can
have other child requests related to it. It can affect a design part, which
is the functional area in which the required change needs to be made. It
can also be related to the item revisions which need to be changed (are
affected by it) and to the new item revisions created (in response to the
request) in order to implement the required change.

Some relationships are formed automatically as a result of operations

you perform. For example, when you create a baseline, you have to
specify a design part to which the baseline has an owned by relationship.
Other relationships may be optional or user-defined.

Defining Object Types

Some classes of object have a user-defined type associated with them.
Within the same product, you can create different types of these objects.
This enables you to define certain properties for those objects which can
be configured differently for different purposes. These object classes are:
 Design Parts
 Items
 Requests
 Projects/streams
 Baselines

This means that you can, for example, define different types of request.
You could have a request type of CR (Change Request) and another of
type TDR (Test Defect Report). These types of request could follow
different lifecycles for their workflow and process of approval, and have
different attribute fields for the user to fill in during this process.

34 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Defining Object Types

For further information about the Dimensions CM object types and how
to define them, see the Process Modeling User's Guide Object Type
Definitions chapter.

Lifecycles
A lifecycle consists of a series of possible states that an object can be in.
The object can be moved to a given state from another state, which in
Dimensions CM is called actioning. Normally an object in a particular
state is only allowed to be actioned to certain other states. The allowable
pairs of to and from states between which it can be actioned are called
transitions, and only certain users can action the object through those
transitions. (Some users, for administrative purposes, may be granted
the privilege to action a particular object between any states, but these
are the usual transitions for most users.) There are normal states, which
follow a progressive path through the lifecycle, and off-normal states,
which are not located on this path.

For example, the lifecycle for a source file below shows the Unit Tested
state selected. Normally that state can only be reached from the Under
Work state when it is actioned by a developer. The item can only be
actioned from this state to Approved by a Team Leader. The only other
transition possible from Unit Tested is to Rejected, which can only be
made by a Team Leader.

Getting Started Guide 35

Chapter 2 The Dimensions CM Process Model

Attributes
Attributes are fields used to contain information about an object.
Attributes can be:

System defined: These are predefined by Dimensions CM for the object

class. They are often used by Dimensions CM to maintain certain data
about the object, for example Creation Date, or Current Status.

User defined: These are defined in your process model for a particular
object type. For example an item of type Source may have an attribute
called Lines of Code, whereas an item of type Object may have an
attribute called Platform.

Attributes can have different formats, such as Text, Date, etc. They can
also be multi-value, meaning that a field can have more than one value,

36 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Defining Object Types

or multi-field, multi-value meaning that it can consist of a group of fields

with more than one value.

Attribute Rules
Rules can be defined for a particular lifecycle transition with regard to an
attribute. A rule can specify that for a given transition for the specified
user:
 The attribute is visible to the user.
 The user can update the attribute.
 The attribute is mandatory, that is the user must update it before
they can action the object.

Valid Sets
You can define sets of rules that allow users to only enter certain values
for an attribute. You can also define validation that cross-validates the
values entered in a combination of fields, and can also automatically fill
in the values of dependant fields when the user enters a value for an
attribute. You define valid sets independently and than assign them to
attributes as required.

Sensitive Attributes and States

When you define an attribute or a lifecycle state, you can, for security
purposes, specify it as Sensitive. This means that:
 If an attribute is sensitive, a user is required to re-enter their
password before they are allowed to update it
 If a state is sensitive, a user is required to re-enter their password
before they can action the object to or from that state.

CM Rules
You can set up a special category of rules relating to items and/or
requests called CM (Change Management) Rules.

Getting Started Guide 37

Chapter 2 The Dimensions CM Process Model

For requests you can configure certain phases that determine what
operations can be performed as in the example below.

You can assign the lifecycle states for a request type to those phases, as
in the example below.

These phases then determine what operations can be performed when

the request is at a particular state.

You can also configure certain rules for item types. For example, you can
require that a request must be related to an item revision before it can
be checked out.

Upload Rules
Upload rules are used to map file name patterns to Dimensions file
formats and item types. These rules determine whether files that match
a certain file name pattern can be added to the database using a
Dimensions client or an IDE, and if so, what item types they will be
created as. Upload rules must exist in the base database before you can
start adding files.

38 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Roles & Privileges

Roles & Privileges

Roles and Privileges consists of the following topics:

Users and Groups

Users are registered in Dimensions CM with a username and password.
Various privileges and facilities can then be assigned to these individual
users. You can also set up groups of users, and control access and
privileges by assigning them to a group. This can make things easier to
maintain, since when users join or leave a particular department they
can simply be added to or removed from the appropriate group.

Differences Between Roles and Privileges

Dimensions CM provides two mechanisms for determining which users
can perform which functions. One is the use of roles. This consists of
defining a role, or using one of the Dimensions CM predefined roles, and
assigning that role to one or more users. There is also another
mechanism, called privileges. A privilege is either a particular operation
that can be performed on a class of object, or an administrative function.
A privilege can then be made available to users or groups according to
certain privilege rules. The basic differences between privileges and roles
can be summarized as follows:
 Roles can be assigned at product or design part level, thus you can
assign a role to different users for different functional areas of your
product. The ability to action objects through specific lifecycle
transitions can only be assigned by means of roles, and are not
defined using privileges. You can, however, assign the required roles
to users or groups.
 Privileges define specific operations that a user can perform. They
can be assigned to specific users or groups, or can be assigned to all
users, or they can apply to a user according to certain rules. They
can also be assigned to a role. They cannot be restricted to particular
design parts, but generally only apply to all objects in a particular
class.

For details about privileges and roles and how to use them, see the
chapter Privileges and Roles in the Process Modeling User's Guide.

Getting Started Guide 39

Chapter 2 The Dimensions CM Process Model

Area Management
Dimensions CM enables you to define areas. An area is a location
somewhere on a network node that is used to contain item files. There
are three types of area:

Work Area: an area used for development work for a particular user or
a number of users, so that their file operations such as check in, check
out, update, deliver, and so on, take place in the context of that area.
The same work area can be assigned to more than one user.

Deployment Area: an area associated with a project/stream for a

particular stage in its development. It is used to contain the item files
that have reached a particular stage such that, for example, they are
ready to be system tested, or to be included in a release build.

Library Cache: An area that is defined in order to contain copies of item

files for a project/stream to improve the efficiency of Dimensions item
operations when accessing a database over a remote network. When a
user needs to access an item file, Dimensions looks in the library cache
area first to see whether the file is already there before attempting to
retrieve it from the remote server.

40 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Dimensions Build

When you define an area, you identify the network node and the folder
path where the area is located. You then associate the area with one or
more projects or streams. Users in the Dimensions CM clients can then
users can select that work area when they are working in a project/
stream as the location for the files when they are working in that project/
stream.

If the area is a deployment area, you also associate it with a stage in the
Global Stage Lifecycle. By default, the Global Stage Lifecycle is set up
with the following stages:

In Dimensions CM, the process of approving item revisions for a

particular stage for their files to be copied to these areas is called
deployment. For deployment areas, you can also define scripts to be
performed in connection with deployments. There can be separate scripts
for before and after an area is populated, and for when an error condition
occurs. You associate these scripts with the area when you define it.

You can deploy baselines and requests, as well as individual item

revisions. This enables you, for example, to deploy all the items related
to a request, or a group of child requests.

Dimensions Build
Dimensions Build is a build management, execution, and monitoring tool
that is part of Dimensions CM. Dimensions Build can be used by
individual developers who are building their code at regular intervals, or
by build managers who are executing controlled builds of source code
from many developers. Dimensions Build enables you to execute builds
from the Build Administration cluster in the Dimensions CM
Administration Console, or from the Dimensions desktop, web, and ISPF
clients. Dimensions Build supports cross-platform builds on secure
remote nodes where the same source code is used for builds on multiple,
heterogeneous platforms.

Getting Started Guide 41

Chapter 2 The Dimensions CM Process Model

Dimensions Build runs on all major Dimensions CM supported platforms:

Windows, Solaris, HP-UX, IBM AIX, Linux, and z/OS mainframe (MVS and
USS). Dimensions Build is build engine independent and integrates with
many third party engines on distributed and mainframe platforms,
including Serena ChangeMan Builder

The Dimensions Build component, adds the following benefits:

 Completely configurable sets of build stages (previously these were
hard coded).
 Open architecture allowing for use of external build engines in
addition to Catalyst Openmake. If the user already has a build
system based on a standard engine such as Make or ANT, those
systems can be re-used without major rework.
 Integrated scheduler to control when builds occur.
 Build environment integrated with the Dimensions CM engine to
version manage the build environment.
 Integration with the Dimensions CM role management to control
build administration and execution.
 Audit trail stored within Dimensions CM.
 A build engine for z/OS offering high performance and parallel build
execution.

Dimensions CM also provides integrations for CruiseControl and Ant that

may be more suitable for more users of agile development processes.

For details on how to use Dimensions Build, see the Dimensions CM Build
Tools User’s Guide.

42 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Chapter 3
The Components of
Dimensions CM

In this Chapter
Dimensions Architecture 44
Dimensions CM Clients 45
Administration Console 47
Dimensions Build 49
Developer Tools 51
Replicator 52
Dimensions CM ART 53
Reports and Published Views 53
The Documentation Set 54

Getting Started with Guide 43

Chapter 3 The Components of Dimensions CM

Dimensions Architecture
Dimensions CM is a true enterprise-level product. It has a multi-tier
architecture with heterogeneous platform support icluding Windows,
UNIX, Linux, and IBM z/OS platforms.
 It has a web client, desktop client, and a Web browser-based
administration console.
 It allows a local workspace to be used on different platforms.
 It allows assets to be held in any location.

Dimensions CM allows the use of distributed server and client platforms.

The server employs an RDBMS database that contains the details of the
process model and the metadata relating to the assets under its control.
The data relating to these assets are held in item libraries that can be
held in a location independent of this server. Client platforms can access
the database accross a network using the web client, desktop client, or a
command-line client. You can also access the Dimensions CM database
from within a number of IDEs for which integrations are provided. The
files under development can be held locally on the client platform or can
also be located on a remote, or tertiary node accessed via the network.
The process model itself can be maintained via the Web browser-based
Administration Console.

44 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Dimensions CM Clients

The diagram below illustrates the architecture that is available.

Dimensions CM Clients
The following client tools are available for accessing a Dimensions CM
database.

Getting Started with Guide 45

Chapter 3 The Components of Dimensions CM

Administration Console: This is a Web browser-based GUI client giving

you access to the process modeling and other administrative functions of
Dimensions CM. For more details, see the Process Modeling User's Guide

Web client: This is a Web browser-based GUI client giving you access to
the Version and Change Management functions of Dimensions CM. For
more details, see the Dimensions CM User’s Guide.

Desktop client: This is a Windows-based GUI client giving you access to

the Version and Change Management functions of Dimensions CM. For
more details, see the Dimensions CM User’s Guide.

Command-line clients: These allow you to access the Version and

Change Management functions of Dimensions CM and the process
modeling functions via the command line. For more details, see the
Command-Line Reference Guide.

Developer Command Line: This is a simplified command-line client

that enables you to work with streams in your development area. This
tool provides a set of commands for tasks such as updating your work
area from a stream, delivering your changes to a stream, or viewing and
resolving conflicts in content.

For more details, see the Command-Line Reference Guide.

ISPF Client: This is an interactive client that can be used on z/OS

platforms to access many of the Version and Change Management
functions of Dimensions CM. For more details, see the Dimensions for z/
OS User’s and Administrator’s Guide.

Other Client Tools and Plug-ins

There are a number of other tools for accessing the features of
Dimensions CM. These are:

Synchronize Wizard: This enables you to compare files and folders in

your working location with the corresponding folders and items in a
Dimensions CM. project or stream. You can update your local work area
from the Dimensions CM repository, deliver your changes to the
Dimensions CM repository, or in the case of projects, synchronize your
work area and repository with one another. Dimensions CM creates and
maintains metadata relating to these files and the corresponding items in
the repository. This enables you to see the type of change that has
occurred between the work area and the repository, and enables the tool
to process these changes, usually without user intervention.

46 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Administration Console

Dimensions CM Plug-in for Microsoft® Windows Explorer: This

enables you to work with item files in Windows Explorer. You can see
various fields and icons relating to the files and their corresponding items
in the Dimensions projects or streams. You can perform certain actions
such as deliver or update from the Explorer window without having to
start a desktop client or web client session, and you can run the
Synchronize Wizard to synchronize the work area with Dimensions CM.

Project Merge Tool: This enables you to compare folders containing

files and subfolders in your Windows work area with project folders and
item revisions in Dimensions CM. The GUI interface indicates the type of
change that has occurred in relationship to each file and informs you if
there is a conflict that needs to be resolved. You can use this tool to
compare and merge folders and files under development with the items
in the Dimensions CM repository.

Serena Merge Tool: This is a file merge tool that enables you to
compare the content of item files with one another line by line and merge
the changes together.

For more details of these tools see, the Dimensions CM User’s Guide.

IDE Integrations
Dimensions CM provides various integrations for integrated development
environments (IDEs). These enable developers to use the version control
or change control features of Dimensions CM whilst working within the
IDE.

For more details of these, see the Integrated Products Guide.

Administration Console
The Dimensions CM Administration Console enables you to define the
rules governing the process model and to configure the dimensions
objects involved. The basic areas of administration are:

Configuration Object Management: This is concerned with defining

the behavior and charecteristics of the objects involved in
Dimensions CM. It includes defining different types of these objects and
the attributes and lifecycles they will follow to suit your process model.

Getting Started with Guide 47

Chapter 3 The Components of Dimensions CM

Product Administration: This involves defining the products in your

base database and their design part structure, or functional breakdown.
There are also other configuration options that are defined at product
level, such the valid sets governing object attributes, and baseline and
release templates.

Users and Roles: This allows you to register Dimensions CM users and
groups of users and to define roles. You can then assign the privileges
that are required to perform the various functions in Dimensions and
control which functions people can use. Other features that are defined
here are email notifications, when and to whom emails are automatically
sent when certain events occur, and User Interface Profiles, which
determine which functions a user will have access to in the
Dimensions CM clients.

Distributed Development: This section is concerned with managing

how Dimensions CM operates in a distributed network invironment. It
includes the definition and assignment of work, deployment and library
cache areas, network administration, and the Build Administration for the
Dimensions CM commoin build component. Also you can manage
Replication and Archives and Transfers, which are concerned with
archiving parts of a base database and transferring Dimensions CM data
from one database to another.

Database Management: This section enables you to view Connection

Pooling statistics for a Dimensions CM databases, and to define reports
that can be made available to users. You can also configure certain
options for your database, such as whether to use projects or streams,
whether or not to use requests, and optionally to use SBM as the request
provider.

For details of Configuration Object Management, Product Administration,

Users and Roles, and Area Definitions, see the Process Modeling User's
Guide.

For Network Administration, Replication, Archives and Transfers, and

Connection Pooling Statistics, see the Administrator’s Guide.

For details on Build Administration, see the Dimensions CM Build Tools

User’s Guide.

For details on Reports Adminstration, see the Reports Guide.

48 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Dimensions Build

Dimensions Build
Dimensions Build consists of the following topics:

Overview
Dimensions Build is a Build management tool. It is configured and
administrated using the Build Administration function of the
Administration Console. For details see the Dimensions CM Build Tools
User’s Guide.

Versioning and Repeating Builds

You can create multiple versions of build configurations and repeat these
builds whenever you want. Each version of a build configuration includes
the following information:
 Target definitions including high-level dependencies.
 Scripts used to build each target. For z/OS you can version the
scripts required for each separate step when building a target.
 Build area definitions (host, authentication details, filesystem
location etc).

Scheduling Builds
You can schedule the execution of builds to suit your build paradigm.
When you set up a scheduled build job you specify the build configuration
and version that will be executed, the targets, the build area, and the
start time. You can also specify the frequency at which a build reoccurs.

Monitoring Builds
You can monitor the status of builds that are currently running and view
the history of completed builds. For each build event you can view the
expanded script used to build the step, the output log of link and compile
listings for the target, and the error log (if applicable).

Getting Started with Guide 49

Chapter 3 The Components of Dimensions CM

Notifications
You can create and subscribe to e-mail notifications that update you
about the progress of your build jobs.

Integration with Dimensions CM

Dimensions CM performs the following functions for Dimensions Build:
 Drives the population of build areas.
 Authenticates and authorizes items.
 Preserves outputs and intermediate files generated by the build
engines.
 Preserves bill-of-materials and post-build dependency information to
enable you to perform impact analysis and traceability.
 Records which build configuration versions were in use at the time a
baseline is taken.

You can also execute builds directly from the following Dimensions
clients:
 Desktop client
 Web client
 ISPF client

For more information see the User’ s Guide and the Dimensions for z/OS
User’ s and Administrator’ s Guide.

Difference Between Mainframe and Other

Platforms
While Dimensions Build offers many cross-platform advantages, it is
important to understand that there is a difference in the most commonly-
expected scenarios for the mainframe versus the other platforms.

On the distributed side, as in Windows, it is expected that the user

(perhaps a build manager) will have a favorite build engine such as Ant
or Serena ChangeMan Builder. Dimensions Build will integrate with those
tools and even import the target definition files such as build.xml that

50 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Developer Tools

define the targets and dependencies. In other words, it is assumed that

the distributed platform user will make use of third-party build engines.

On the mainframe side, the reverse is true. Dimensions Build

incorporates a Serena-produced build engine, as stated previously, and it
is expected that the user will make use of it.

Versioning and Repeating Builds

You can create multiple versions of build configurations and repeat these
builds whenever you want. Each version of a build configuration includes
the following information:
 Target definitions including high-level dependencies.
 Scripts used to build each target. For z/OS you can version the
scripts required for each separate step when building a target.
 Build area definitions (host, authentication details, filesystem
location etc).

Developer Tools
Developer Tools consists of the following topics:

C/C++ API DTK

The Dimensions CM Developer’s Toolkit (DTK) enables you to access and
manipulate objects that are held within a Dimensions repository.

Java API
The Java API provides full, programmatic access to the features of
Dimensions CM. The Java API allows you to create and manipulate
versioning, change management, and process modeling data while under
the control the Dimensions CM permissions and change management
rules framework.

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Chapter 3 The Components of Dimensions CM

Scripts and Templates for Remote Job

Execution
Remote job execution enables you to invoke processing on a remote
node on which a Dimensions Listener is running, and to integrate
Dimensions with your own systems and tools. Dimensions supports a
templating language on Windows, UNIX, and z/OS (both USS and MVS)
that you can use to customize the remote construction of processing.

Web Services API and ALF Events

With the Dimensions CM Web services API (Application Programming
Interface) and the Dimensions CM ALF (Application Lifecycle Framework)
events, you can access key Dimensions CM features from your own
applications. This enables you, for example, to build your own front-end
clients or create business mashups and orchestrations with Serena
Business Mashups (SBM).

Replicator
Replicator is designed specifically to support software development
effectively in decentralized and distributed team environments.
Replicator supports remote and distributed development of items,
baselines, and requests by allowing teams of developers, located at
different geographical locations, to work seamlessly in parallel on the
same project files while accessing their own local Dimensions repository.
Behind the scenes, Replicator will ensure that items, baselines, and
requests, plus their associated meta-data, are replicated from one
repository to another in accordance with the replication policies set up by
the project administrator. Furthermore, it will ensure that these separate
repositories are always kept in synchronization with regard to any
changes in these policies.

Replicator can be configured to operate accross a network between a

Master base database and a number of subordinate base databases.
Users can then work on the items, baselines, and requests and a
replication can be run to synchronize the updated objects between the
databases. Replication can also be done without using a network by
downloading the data at one site, physically transferring this data to

52 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Dimensions CM ART

another site and uploading it to a base database at that site (air-gap

replication).

For further details about using Replicator, see the Administrator’s Guide.

Dimensions CM ART
The Dimensions CM ART facilities enable you to archive the contents of a
baseline and store a copy of them on designated archive media. These
media are referred to as archive volumes and each has an identity known
to Dimensions ART as a Volume-id. An archive, which is effectively a
copy, may be required for various reasons including satisfying procedural
or contractual obligations. A special Release-baseline may be taken using
the *ALL rule which includes in the baseline all revisions of each relevant
item of the type specified regardless of lifecycle status.

Dimensions ART also provides functions to retrieve such information back

into the system and restoring their status to ONLINE. The retrieval is
based on material that has been taken OFFLINE and held on an archive
volume such as a magnetic tape. Each tape is identified by a Tape No.
and a "Volume-id" which is written physically on to the tape by
Dimensions ART. The system permits retrieval of such items from a
specified Volume-id, on a selective basis, the Tape No. only being used
for mounting purposes.

For further details of Dimensions ART see the Administrator’s Guide.

Reports and Published Views

Dimensions CM provides a sophisticated Report Builder feature that is
accessed through either the web client or desktop client. This allows you
to create and modify end-user GUI client reports for all Dimensions CM
object types. The formats include:
 Listing report
 Distribution table
 Pie chart

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Chapter 3 The Components of Dimensions CM

 Bar chart

You can construct sophisticated queries involving Dimensions CM

objects, such as design part, baseline request, item, workset, release
and product and create and save reports based on them.

See the User's Guide for details of Dimensions CM Report Builder.

Dimensions also provides a number of Published Views. These enable you

to write your own programs to extract information from the database.
You can also setup your own reports, which are run using the Dimensions
RUR command, by using User Reports Administration in the
Administration Console.

See the Reports Guide for details of these features and a list of the
Published Views available.

For details of the RUR command, see the Command-Line Reference

Guide.

In addition to this, the desktop client allows you to access the Crystal
Reports desktop, provided you have this product installed. See the online
help in the desktop client for information on how to access this.

The Documentation Set

The Documentation Set consists of the following topics:

Books
The Dimensions Documentation Set is provided in the form of Adobe ™
Acrobat ™ Portable Document Format Files (.pdf) files.

Adobe Acrobat Readers are provided for Microsoft Windows platforms

and a variety of UNIX and Linux platforms.

For information on using the online manuals, access the Acrobat Reader
Online Guide.

Dimensions provides a Documentation Roadmap document that contains

a list of all the PDF books together with links. You can also search the

54 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 The Documentation Set

entire Dimensions documentation set from the Roadmap PDF file using
the Adobe Acrobat Search feature:
 Search for a specific word or a phrase.
 You can choose to search within a single book or across an entire doc
set.
 Jump to a specific section in a manual from the bookmarks or Table
of Contents.

To search using Acrobat Reader:

1 In Adobe Reader, select Edit | Search.

2 In the text box, enter the word or phrase for which you want to
search.

3 Select the All PDF Documents in option, and browse to select the
folder in which you want to search. (If you have a document open
that has an Adobe Catalog index attached, you can leave the In the
index named... option selected to search across all the manuals in
the index.)

4 Optionally, select one or more of the additional search options, such

as Whole words only and Case-Sensitive.

5 Click the Search button

Online Help
Dimensions provides online help for all its GUI clients.

The Dimensions client GUIs provide online help in HTML WebHelp format
and it is viewed using the appropriate HTML browser. Context-sensitive
information is provided to aid the user in the application of the specific
function.

Dimensions CM for z/OS

Dimensions for z/OS provides textual online help for ISPF Panels.
Context-sensitive help is provided to aid the user in the application of the
specific function.

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Chapter 3 The Components of Dimensions CM

HTML online help is also provided for the SDK for Dimensions for z/OS.
For more information on how to use the SDK, see the Dimensions CM for
z/OS User’s and Administrator’s Guide.

56 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Glossary

<all_local_ A replication option that specifies that all named branches

branches> owned by the master DB site are to be replicated to the
subordinate DB sites.

<all_named_ A replication option that specifies that all named branches on

branches> the master DB site are to be replicated to the subordinate DB
sites, except those that are owned by the subordinate DB sites.

Action To move a Dimensions object, such as an item, request, or

lifecycle, to another lifecycle state. Only a user with the
appropriate role for a state can action the item to another state.

Administration A Dimensions tool for setting up the process model and creating
Console products. For more information, see the Process Modeling User’s
Guide.

Ancestor When comparing projects, the base project to which other

projects, called derivatives, are compared in the Project Merge
Tool.

When comparing files, the base file to which other derivative

files are compared in the Serena Merge Tool.

Archive baseline A restricted variant of a release baseline. Archive baselines use

a baseline template that includes all of the revisions of the item
types.

Use the archive baseline to preserve the product at a milestone

using the Dimensions Archive, Transfer, and Retrieval (ART)
facilities. For more information on Dimensions ART, see the
Distributed Development Guide.

Area A Dimensions-defined location on a network node where item

files are stored. Files are referenced using the same hierarchical
folder structure as the items in the project or stream. See also
work area, deployment area, and library cache area.

Getting Started Guide 57

Glossary

Attribute A property of an object that records important configuration

information such as creation date, owner, status, description,
and the user who last updated the object. See also user-defined
attributes.

Authentication A requirement for users to confirm their password before they

can perform certain actions on an object. The users are
presented with a confirmation dialog box if they attempt to
update an object’s lifecycle state or attribute that is specified as
sensitive.

Base database The basic instance of a Dimensions process model. Each base
database has a separate database schema, and can contain one
or more products. Products in different base databases cannot
reference each other.

Base database site The location of a base database, which is specified by the
physical network node name, Oracle database instance
identifier, and the base database name.

Baseline A snapshot of a design part or a project or stream at a particular

time. Baselines ensure that the design parts and items included
in the baseline can be reliably recreated in the future. For
example, you might create a baseline before starting a
maintenance cycle or assigning further development activities.
See also design baseline, release baseline, and archive baseline.

Baseline pedigree See pedigree.

Baseline replication The transfer of baselines and the items contained in the
baselines from a master site to one or more subordinate sites.

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 Glossary

Baseline template A set of rules that determine which items to include or exclude
in a release baseline or an archive baseline based on the item
type, revision, status, and relationships. There are two types of
baseline template:
 An item baseline template contains a list of criteria relating
to item types that is used to construct the baseline.
 A request baseline template contains a list of criteria for
selecting requests whose related items are used to
construct the baseline.

Baseline templates are defined in the Administration Console.

For more information, see the Process Modeling User’s Guide.

Baseline type An attribute of a baseline that determines which user-defined

attributes and lifecycle are used for the baseline.

Baseline types are defined in the Administration Console. For

more information, see the Process Modeling User’s Guide.

Batch mode A method of running a group of Dimensions commands together

as a script—for example, by running a command file.

Branch A chain of item revisions that follows its own update path.
Branches allow product versions to be developed in parallel. For
example, a software product might have separate branches for
concurrent development of a major release and a maintenance
version of the product. Branches can be merged back into the
main development path.

Breakdown A relationship in which a design part (child) is owned by another

relationship design part (parent). Breakdown relationships determine the
inherited responsibilities for the items or requests associated
with a particular design part segment.

See also usage relationship.

Build To use Dimensions Build to process one or more item revisions

into some other form, which can be anything from a single item
revision, such as an executable file, to an entire product.

Catalog list See primary catalog.

Category See request category and design part category.

Getting Started Guide 59

Glossary

Change document See request.

Change Manager A Dimensions-defined role for the user who has special
authority and privileges in the handling of requests.

Check in To return a currently checked-out item to the Dimensions

database.

Check out To extract an item from the Dimensions database so you can
work on it. When you check out an item, Dimensions creates a
new item revision and places it in your working location. The
revision is locked in Dimensions CM so no one else can change
it. When you finish working with it, you check in the item.

Client node A network client (any DFS or NET node) that requires access to
the Dimensions server.

Code page Defines the method of encoding characters. A code page

encompasses both the different ways characters are encoded on
different platforms (EBCDIC on z/OS and ASCII on Windows and
UNIX) and differences between human languages. Every item in
Dimensions has a code page associated with it, which is defined
by the network connection or set individually when running
commands from the Dimensions command mode.

Command A Dimensions function followed by parameters and qualifiers.

For more information, see the Command-Line Reference.

Command file A text file whose contents include one or more Dimensions
commands. You can run a command file in batch mode using
the Dimensions CMD command. For more information, see the
Command-Line Reference.

Command mode A method for using Dimensions commands. Command mode

involves entering Dimensions functions at the operating system
prompt, in the Dimensions Execute Command dialog box, or by
running a command file. For more information, see the
Command-Line Reference.

Configuration The structure of design parts in a product, or a part of that

design structure.

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 Glossary

Console window In the desktop client, a window that shows Dimensions

commands and the results of those commands. You can type
commands directly into the console window.

Content area In the web client, an area of the screen that displays lists of
objects. For example, on the My Current Project/Stream tab,
the content area shows the items, requests, and baselines that
are assigned to you.

Content window In the desktop client, an area of the screen that displays lists of
objects or object trees, depending on your current task. For
example, the Request Catalog window shows all requests in a
product. A content window can be opened, closed, and
minimized, and you can switch between open content windows.

Customer The recipient of one or more releases.

Daemon A process that sits in the background listening for TCP/IP

connection requests. A daemon starts another process to
perform operations required by the connection request.

Database server node The node in the network where the Dimensions database is
located.

Delegate  To transfer responsibility for a request, item, or baseline

from yourself to another user who does not currently have a
role for the object. Delegating an object overrides the
normal role assignments made through the design
structure.
 To assign a particular role to a user.
 To assign the owning site of a request to another
Dimensions CM replication site.

Deliver The process of updating a project or stream in the repository

with the changes made to the corresponding files in the work
area.

Delta release A release that includes only the items that have changed since
the previous release.

Getting Started Guide 61

Glossary

Demote To move item revisions, baselines, or requests to a lower stage

in the Global Stage Lifecycle. When item revisions are demoted
they may then be automatically or manually rolled back. When
you demote a request, all the item revisions related to that
request, or any of its child requests, are demoted. When you
demote a baseline, all the item revisions in the baseline are
demoted.

Deploy To copy the item files for selected item revisions to the area(s)
corresponding to their stage in the Global Stage Lifecycle for the
project or stream to which they belong. You cannot deploy item
revisions to areas corresponding to a stage that is greater than
the stage to which they have been have been promoted. When
you deploy a request, all the item revisions related to that
request, or any of its child requests, are deployed. When you
deploy a baseline, all the item revisions in the baseline are
deployed. Deployment occurs automatically when the items are
promoted if the corresponding areas are defined as Deploy by
default.

Deploy by default An option specified for a deployment area such that deployment
is automatically scheduled to occur when item revisions are
promoted to the corresponding stage in the Global Stage
Lifecycle for that area when it is associated with their project or
stream.

Deployment area An area that is defined for a project or stream for Deploying
item files that have reached a particular stage in the Global
Stage Lifecycle.

Derivative When comparing projects, one of any number of projects being

compared to the ancestor in the Project Merge Tool.

When comparing files, one of any number of files being

compared to the ancestor in the Serena Merge Tool.

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 Glossary

Design baseline A snapshot of the current product design structure, or a

selected portion of it, within the scope of the current project or
stream or design part, including all the revisions for each item.

Design baselines provide managers with audit capabilities. You

can compare two baselines to see how the product project/
stream has developed during the period between them.
Developers can continue to modify items included in a design
baseline.

Design part A logical component of a product. Design parts are related

groupings of objects, such as modules of code, specifications,
and requests. Each design part represents a conceptual
component of the design structure of the product. See also top-
level design part.

Design part category An attribute of a design part that indicates its general purpose.
All custom lists of a design part have the same category.
Categories are defined as part of the process model. For more
information, see the Process Modeling User’s Guide.

Design structure The hierarchical structure that identifies the design parts of a
product and the relationships between them. See also
breakdown relationship and usage relationship.

Desktop client A Microsoft Windows-based application that you use to access

the Dimensions database. This has also been known as PC
Client.

Dimensions base See base database.

database

Dimensions CM The collection of Dimensions data stored in a structured

database relational format.

Dimensions network The collection of nodes that have been defined via the
Administration Console or the Network Administration command
line interface that form a LAN or WAN network.

Dimensions CM The user responsible for creating, deleting, and maintaining the
System Dimensions database as well as other administrative tasks.
Administrator

Getting Started Guide 63

Glossary

Directory item An entire directory/folder, including subdirectories and files, that

is compressed and stored in Dimensions as a single item. A
directory item is uncompressed when you check out or get a
copy of it in your working location.

Display bar The navigation area in the desktop client that enables you to
open various content windows.

Distributed file A type of physical network node that can host a Dimensions
system (DFS) database and store Dimensions item libraries.

Filter A set of search criteria that you use to locate and display
matching object. You can save and reuse filters.

Format See item format.

Format template A text file that defines the initial content of an item or a request
that is created without content. Item format templates can
include header substitution variables.

Function See command.

Get To extract a copy of an item revision from the Dimensions

database so that you can view it without checking it out. When
you get an item revision, Dimensions leaves the revision in its
current state (checked in or checked out) and creates a read-
only copy in your work area.

Global project The project that contains all of the projects/streams and items
in the base database. Any structural changes made in a project
or stream, such as adding, deleting, and moving files, are also
reflected in the global project.

The global project is named $GENERIC:$GLOBAL and cannot be

deleted. Users assigned to the global project can reference any
item revision in any product in the base database to which they
are connected.

Global Stage The Global Stage Lifecycle is the lifecycle that items follow that
Lifecycle controls which versions are included in configurations and builds
of the project or stream. This lifecycle is defined for the base
database. Deployment areas for a project/stream can be
associated with these stages so that item files are copied to
those areas when they are deployed to the corresponding stage.

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 Glossary

Group A set of users to which you can assign privileges. Groups

provide a manageable way of granting and denying privileges to
similar sets of users.

Header substitution Placeholders for text in an item that are expanded dynamically
variables when you check out, get, or preview an item. Header
substitution variables must be placed within an item header. You
can embed multiple headers anywhere in a file.

Held list The list of requests that you have created but not yet submitted
because you are still working on them. An example is a request
that requires a yet-to-be-created screenshot.

Inbox A list of requests, items, and baselines that are currently waiting
on you for further action. An object is added to your inbox when
it is actioned to a state in which you have a role.

Item An object that represents the physical implementation of a

product component. An item could be source code, an
executable file, a document, or an image file. Items can also
represent data that does not reside in the file system, such as
hardware or database objects.

Item format An attribute associated with an item type in the process model
that indicates the internal structure of those items. The item
format determines how items of that type are processed during
a build. In the web client, the item format sets the MIME type
for the item, which determines how item content is displayed in
your web browser.

Item ID An attribute that identifies an item. The item ID may be

automatically generated from the item type and item project
filename, or it may be typed in when the item is created.

The same item ID may be used for a "family" of items whose

contents have the same origin, but may:
 Serve different purposes (different item types)
 Exist to meet different requirements (different custom lists)
 Be at a different stage of modification (different revisions)

Getting Started Guide 65

Glossary

Item library A directory/folder that holds the data files for one or more item
types in the Dimensions database. It can be located on a
different network node from the Dimensions database
containing the items.

Item pedigree See pedigree.

Item replication A process by which Dimensions items are transferred between

projects. These projects may reside in the same base database
or on different databases resident locally or remotely.

Item revision A specific instance of an item. Whenever you modify and check
in an item, a new item revision is created and stored in the
Dimensions database. Each revision has a full set of attributes,
such as modification date, reason for change, and author’s
name, so you can trace the history of all changes to an item.
Revisions are numbered according to the process model.

Item specification The unique identifier for an item. Item specifications have the
following form:

productID:itemID.variant-itemType;revision

See also product ID, item ID, variant, item type, and item
revision.

Item type An attribute of an item that indicates the general purpose of

that category of item. For example, item types can include
source files, documentation files, specifications, or object files.

Leader An attribute of a role that gives the holder permissions and

responsibilities above those of other users with the same role.
The leader attribute is set up in the Administration Console. For
more information, see the Process Modeling User’s Guide.

Library Cache Area An area that is defined in order to contain copies of files whose
items are located on a database on a remote server. The
purpose is to improve Dimensions CM file get performance.
When a user requests a copy of a file by using an operation such
as get or check out, Dimensions CM first looks in the library
cache area to see if it is already there before attempting to
retrieve it from the remote item library.

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 Glossary

Lifecycle The set of states and rules for transitions between states
defined for a particular object type and design part in the
process model.

Local item replication The transfer of Dimensions items from and to projects that have
all been defined within the same Dimensions base database.

Logical node The user-defined alias of the remote node. A physical node can
have more than one logical name. You can specify an asterisk in
this field, to denote that a particular node can connect to any
node in the Dimensions Network.

Login profile The login details for your connection to the Dimensions
database, including your user ID and the database name. A
login profile saves all of your connection information, except for
your password.

Main catalog See primary catalog.

Master base database A Dimensions base database that is defined within the context
of a replication configuration as the source for a replication
process.

Master DB site The site upon which the master base database is located.

Master project The project in the master DB base database that acts as the
source for a replication process.

Merge To view the differences and resolve the conflicts between two
text items (using the Serena Merge Tool) or projects (using the
Project Merge Tool), with the result being a single item or
project.

Merge configuration A text file used to control merge options when starting the
file Project Merge Tool from the command line.

Merge project A set of item revisions in a project, baseline, or folder/directory

that you want to compare or merge.

Merge tool See Serena Merge Tool.

Merged baseline The composite of two or more release baselines, merged

baselines, or revised baselines and the selected design part.

Getting Started Guide 67

Glossary

Named branch A valid name for a branch in a particular project. Revisions in a

branch include the branch name and the revision ID, separated
by a pound (#) sign. For example, the first revision in a named
branch called win is win#1.

NET A type of physical network node that can host a Dimensions

database, but not Dimensions item libraries.

Network object For TCP/IP this is a socket listed in the services file or its
equivalent. It is used by the networking software to
communicate between nodes in the network.

Node See remote node.

Notification An e-mail message that is sent to subscribed users and groups

when a particular event occurs.

Object A term used to refer collectively to these object types: design

parts, items, requests, project/streams, baselines, releases,
and customers.

Object list A list of objects presented in table form in the content area of
the web client.

Object tree A tree view of a hierarchical object. Dimensions displays the

project structure and the design structure of a product in an
object tree.

Oracle service The name of the NET8 service.

 On UNIX this is defined in the Oracle file tnsnames.ora.
 On Windows this is defined using the Net Configuration
Assistant option.

Oracle SID The Oracle system identifier that identifies the database
instance.

Originator The creator of a Dimensions object. The role of $ORIGINATOR is

automatically assigned to the creator of a Dimensions object for
the duration of its lifecycle. This role may be authorized to
action the object.

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 Glossary

Owned The relationship of an item to a design part when the item was
created or moved. This relationship indicates the part of the
product to which the item belongs. All revisions of the item have
this relationship to the same design part.

Owning site The replication site that has ownership of a request when there
is replication of requests between Dimensions base databases.
The site that owns the request is able to update it, whereas
other sites can only view its details.

Part Same as design part.

Part category Same as design part category.

Part change status The field in the part specification that identifies the modification
level of the design part. Previous versions of the design part are
Closed. Only the latest version has the Open part status.

Part ID See part specification.

Part specification The unique identifier for a design part. Design part
specifications have the following form:

productID:partID.variant;pcs

See also product ID, part ID, variant, and part change status.

Pedigree A graphical representation of the history of an item, project/

stream, or baseline. The pedigree shows how objects are
related in time and origin.

Pending list See inbox.

Permission See privilege.

Physical node The actual machine name of the remote node. You can specify
an asterisk in this field, to denote a particular node can connect
to any node in the Dimensions Network.

Placeholder item Placeholder items serve to maintain the pedigree of replicated

revisions items for item revision "holes." They are owned by the
recipient’s Global project.

A placeholder item is also a term that refers to items used for

files created as a result of a build by build preservation policies.

Getting Started Guide 69

Glossary

Primary catalog The storage area for active requests. Requests that become
inactive may be moved to the secondary catalog by someon
with the necessary privilege.

Privilege The ability to perform certain operations, such as creating a

project or actioning a request. Administration privileges are set
for a base database, and product-level privileges are set for a
particular product.

Privilege rule The conditions under which a user is granted a given privilege.

Process model A set of user-defined controls that govern the design,

development, and maintenance of a product. The process model
incorporates your company’s change, version, process, and
build policies in order to regulate and improve your
development environment.

Product The top-level object type that provides the context for
managing development with Dimensions. Every object belongs
to a product. The design structure of a product is modeled as a
set of related design parts.

Product ID An attribute that uniquely identifies a product.

Product Manager A Dimensions-defined role for the user who has special
authority and privileges in setting up the process model rules for
an individual product and managing the development process.

Profile See user interface profile.

Project A project is a collection of item revisions that are relevant to a

development activity. A project differs from a stream in that it
can contain parallel versions of the same items.

Project filename A name that identifies an item within a project. The project
filename may or may not be the same as the actual filename of
the item. Also, different projects/streams may refer to the same
item using different project filenames.

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 Glossary

Project Manager A Dimensions-defined role for the user who has special
authority and privileges in the handling of projects. The Project
Manager sets up and maintains the project folder structure,
adds or deletes items, sets the project options that regulate
how users work within projects, and locks projects to create
baselines.

Project/Stream A folder in the project or stream structure that contains items.

folder

Project Merge Tool A Dimensions tool that enables you to compare or merge
projects. When you compare projects, you view the differences
between two projects. When you merge projects, you view the
differences between two or more projects and resolve the
conflicts, with the result being a single project.

Project pedigree See pedigree.

Project root folder/ The top-level folder/directory that identifies your work area for
directory a project or stream. Items are checked out, checked in, and
copied to the working location relative to their location in the
project/stream directory.

Promote To move item revisions, baselines, or requests to the next stage

in the Global Stage Lifecycle. When item revisions are promoted
they can then be automatically or manually deployed, meaning
that their item files are copied to the corresponding delployment
area for the project or stream. When you promote a request, all
the item revisions related to that request, or any of its child
requests, are promoted. When you promote a baseline, all the
item revisions in the baseline are promoted.

Recipient DB site A site that receives replicated items or requests from a sender
DB site.

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Glossary

Relationship An association between two objects. Each object type has a set
of possible relationships with other object types. You can
unrelate items, if necessary, depending on the type of
relationship and the state the item is in.

For example, relationships record whether an item is affected by

a request, which items are used to build another item, and
which items belong to a baseline.

Some relationship types are system-defined, while others are

user-defined. The Product Manager can set up user-defined
relationship types in the process model.

Release A snapshot of a design structure or a baseline that you can

deliver to a customer or use in integration testing. See also
delta release.

Release baseline A snapshot of a design structure or a project at a particular

time. You create a release baseline to define and build a test or
release of the product. A release baseline uses a baseline
template to select a single version of each item that matches
the criteria in the template. Dimensions CM locks the design
parts and items included in the release baseline.

Release folder/ A file system directory, external to the Dimensions database,

directory that contains copies of all the items in a release.

Release template A set of rules for selecting which parts of the design structure
and item types to include in a release, and which release
directory to put them in.

Release templates are created in the Administration Console.

For more information, see the Process Modeling User’s Guide.

Remote item The transfer of Dimensions items to a project that resides in a

replication different base database.

Remote node A computer on your network that contains files and directories
that you want to work with in Dimensions. To access these files
and directories, you must first log into the remote node from
Dimensions.

Replication branch A named branch that is replicated.

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 Glossary

Replication A controlling definition for a specific replication. It identifies a

configuration collection of base database sites (a master and multiple
subordinates).
 For an item replication, it specifies a set of named branches
to be replicated.
 For a baseline replication, it specifies a set of named
branches and item types to be replicated.
 For a request replication, it specifies a set of request types
to be replicated.

The configuration also specifies whether a subordinate should

replicate items or requests back to the master.

Request An object used to report a defect, suggest an enhancement, or

detail other work for a particular product. Requests can include
external files (such as requirements or specification documents)
as attachments.

Each request type has a lifecycle assigned to it that determines

which users may work on the request at each step in the
process model.

Request category One of four groups to which request types are assigned. Each
category has its own set of user-defined attributes.

Request list A list of requests that you can create for your own purposes. For
example, you can construct a request list of those requests on
which you are currently working.

Request replication A process by which requests are transferred remotely between

Dimensions base databases.

Request type An attribute of a request that classifies the change described,

and indicates the general purpose of the request. Valid types
are defined by the Product Manager as part of the process
model. A request’s type determines which lifecycle it follows.

Requirement An object that represents a planned change to a project.

Requests are created in Dimensions RM and are visible in
Dimensions CM where you can create requests in response to
them.

Getting Started Guide 73

Glossary

Revised baseline A release baseline that is modified in response to requests.

Depending on the relationship of item revisions to requests,
items may be removed, replaced or added.

Revision See item revision.

Role A name, such as Developer or Reviewer, that identifies users

with similar responsibilities. Roles are used in lifecycles to grant
permissions to action objects. Roles are assigned to users
according to the object’s place in the design structure and the
user’s responsibilities.

Some roles are built into Dimensions CM, while others are user-
defined. Roles are created and assigned in the Administration
Console. For more information, see the Process Modeling User’s
Guide.

Roll back Rolling back a deployment of items removes the associated item
files from a deployment area and then automatically redeploys
the versions that were there previously. When you roll back a
request, all the item revisions related to that request, or any of
its child requests, are rolled back. When you roll back a
baseline, all the item revisions in the baseline are rolled back.

Role section A set of attributes that are relevant to users with a particular
role in an object’s lifecycle. Role sections are not restricted to
users with that role; they are simply a way of reducing the list
of attributes to what the users want to see.

Root folder/directory See project root folder/directory.

SDP Standard Dimensions Protocol. Version 2 of the TCP/IP

communications protocol is used by Dimensions Network
connections.

Secondary catalog The storage area for inactive requests. If you are the Change
Manager, you can move requests from the primary catalog to
the secondary catalog in order to save space and improve the
performance of the primary catalog. Once placed in the
secondary catalog, a request can’t be updated. Requests can be
moved back to the primary catalog.

Secondary catalog The list of all requests placed in the secondary catalog by the
list Change Manager.

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 Glossary

Sensitive A condition of a lifecycle state of an object that requires

authentication before the user can action the object to or from
that state. An attribute can also be marked as sensitive, which
requires authentication before it can be updated.

Serena Merge Tool A tool that enables you to compare or merge text items. Also
previously known as the PVCS Merge Tool.

Server node A node that can host network-accessible Dimensions item

libraries. This is any DFS node.

Site The location of a Dimensions base database, specified by a

network node, Oracle SID, and a Dimensions base database
name.

State An approval level in a lifecycle through which an object must

pass. States typically reflect states of approval such as
development, test, and release.

Status The current lifecycle state of an object.

Stream A stream is a collection of item revisions that are relevant to a

development activity. A stream differs from a project in that it
does not contain parallel versions of the same items, and you
cannot check-out/in individual files directly with a stream, you
must update to your work area and then deliver the changes.

Subordinate base A Dimensions base database that is to receive replicated items

database or requests, and which may, optionally, replicate items or
requests, back to the master base database.

Subordinate DB sites The sites upon which subordinate base databases are located.

Subordinate project The project in the subordinate base database into which items
are to be replicated and from which, optionally, items are to be
replicated back to the master base database.

Subscribe The assignment of users and groups to receive an e-mail

notification when specified events occur.

Substitution variable See header substitution variables.

Suspend To remove a design part or item from further use. The object
remains in the Dimensions database for existing configurations
and baselines that include that design part or item.

Getting Started Guide 75

Glossary

Synchronize Wizard A Dimensions tool that enables you to synchronize files in your
working location with item revisions in a Dimensions project or
stream. It compares the files and items and determines the
updates necessary to put the repository and working location in
step with one-another, and optionally, performs the updates
automatically. I can synchronize both the work area and
repository with one-another (for projects only) or it can perform
an update or deliver.

Target The project or file that results after you merge two or more
projects or files. See also ancestor and derivative.

Template A file or set of rules that controls an object in Dimensions. See

format template, baseline template, and release template.

Tip baseline A snapshot of the latest set of tip revisions for a project or
stream. A tip baseline contains only the latest revision of each
item and does not use a baseline template.

Top-level design part The top-most design part of a product’s design structure. It is
created when the product is defined. For more information, see
the Process Modeling User’s Guide.

Update The process of updating a work area with the changes in the
corresponding project or stream in the repository.

Upload rules The rules for uploading files from a location outside of the
Dimensions database and saving them in a project. These rules
determine the design part, item format, and item type for these
new items. For more information, see the Integrated Products
Guide.

Usage relationship The relationship between design parts that are reused in the
design structure. See also breakdown relationship.

User A member of the project team who has been authorized and
given privileges to use Dimensions.

User area See working location.

User interface profile A set of features that are shown or hidden in the client tools for
a particular user or group. UI profiles simplify the UI and enable
users to quickly find and focus on their specific tasks. UI profiles
do not enforce security. See privileges.

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 Glossary

User list See custom list.

User-defined A set of attributes that can be defined to collect custom

attributes information for different object types. User-defined attributes
can be used to customize the layout of requests by including
them in format templates.

Variant An alternative implementation of a design part or item, usually

to meet different standards or customer requirements. Variants
are identified by a field in the part specification of an item
specification.

Version A general term for an item revision, or for the part change
status of a design part.

Web client A Web-based application that enables you to use a web browser
to access the Dimensions database.

Work area A location on your local hard drive, on a remote node, or on a

network drive that you use to check out, check in, get, and add
items. This working location is a value that you set as the
default for a project you are working on.

A work area can also be a Dimensions-configured area, which is

an area defined in the database referencing a location on disk to
be used for files under development.

Getting Started Guide 77

Glossary

78 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

Index

A command 60
command file 60
action 57 command mode 60
Administration Console 57 configuration 60
Adobe Acrobat 54 console window 61
ancestor 57 contacting technical support 10
archive baseline 57 content area 61
area 57 content window 61
areas conventions, typographical 8
deployment 40 customer 61
library cache 40
work 40
attribute 58 D
authentication 58
daemon 61
database server node 61
B delegate 61
delta release 61
base database 58 deploy 62, 71, 74
base database site 58 deployment area 62
baseline 58 deployment areas 40
baseline replication 58 derivative 62
baseline template 59 design baseline 63, 76
baseline type 59 design part 63
batch mode 59 design part category 63
branch 59 design structure 63
breakdown relationship 59 desktop client 63
build 59 Dimensions
product components 7
Dimensions database 63
C Dimensions network 63
Dimensions System Administrator 63
Change Manager 60 Dimensions web client GUI
check in 60 help 55
check out 60 directory item 64
client node 60 display bar 64
code page 60 distributed file system (DFS) 64

Getting Started Guide 79

Index

F M
filter 64 master base database 67
format template 64 master DB site 67
master project 67
merge 67
G merge configuration file 67
merge project 67
get 64 merged baseline 67
global project 64
Global Stage Lifecycle 64
group 65 N
named branch 68
H NET 68
network object 68
header substitution variables 65 notification 68
held list 65

O
I
object 68
inbox 65 object list 68
item 65 object tree 68
item format 65 online help
item ID 65 Dimensions for z/OS 55
item library 66 Dimensions web client 55
item replication 66 Oracle service 68
item revision 66 Oracle SID 68
item specification 66 originator 68
item type 66 owned 69
owning site 69

L
P
leader 66
library cache area 66 part change status 69
library cache areas 40 part specification 69
lifecycle 67 PDF
local item replication 67 files 54
logical node 67 pedigree 69
login profile 67 physical node 69
placeholder item revisions 69
platform support 9

80 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1

 Index

primary catalog 70 Serena Merge tool 75

printing manuals 9 server node 75
privilege 70 site 75
privilege rule 70 state 75
process model 70 status 75
product 70 subordinate base database 75
product ID 70 subordinate DB sites 75
Product Manager 70 subordinate project 75
project 70, 75 subscribe 75
project directory 71 supported platforms and third-party
project filename 70 integrations 9
Project Merge Tool 71 suspend 75
project root directory 71 Synchronize Wizard 76

R T
recipient DB site 71 target 76
relationship 72 technical support
release 72 contacting 10
release baseline 72 template 76
release directory 72 third party integrations support 9
release template 72 top-level design part 76
remote item replication 72 typographical conventions 8
remote node 72
replication branch 72
replication configuration 73 U
request 73
request category 73 upload rules 76
request list 73 usage relationship 76
request replication 73 user 76
request type 73 user interface profile 76
requirement 73 user-defined attributes 77
revised baseline 74
role 74
role section 74 V
variant 77
S version 77

SDP 74
secondary catalog 74 W
secondary catalog list 74
sensitive 75 Web client 77

Getting Started Guide 81

Index

work areas 40
working location 77
Workset Manager 71

82 Serena® Dimensions® CM 12.2.1