Use request-request relationships to signify a dependency or connection between a request and other requests. Requests can be related to one another by system-defined or user-defined relationships. The system-defined relationships are determined by your process model and cannot be changed.
System-defined request-request relationships are:
Dependent. A request can be dependent on another request for closure.
Information. A request can have an informational relationship to one or more requests. This means that the requests are related for information purposes only.
User-defined relationships can also be defined to identify relationships that are specific to your organization or product. These relationships are based on the system-defined Dependent or Information types.
For two requests to be related to each other:
The request types must be allowed to be in a valid relationship. This relationship is a parent-child one and must be defined for both Dependent and Information relationship types.
For both Dependent and Information types, the child request must be open and the parent request must be held or open.
For the Dependent type, the request types must both have rules enabled or must both have rules disabled. See About Change Management Rules for information.
For the Dependent type, if rules are enabled, then the relationship can only be established (or dissolved) if the parent request is in the ANALYSIS or An+Work phase, as described later.
Example: Dependent Requests
In-Car Software Inc. has a product set up in Dimensions CM called NAVIGATION. A bug has been found such that the variable direction is sometimes being set to the wrong value. A request is raised for this.
It is found on examination that both the animation and the sound software will need to be changed. Two new requests are created for these functional areas, and they are related to the initial request as Dependent.