Defining and managing relationships

Change requests (and release requests) can affect and can be affected by configuration items (CIs) and other types of records (changes, releases, incidents, or problems). By defining these relationships, you can define a more sophisticated overview of the connections and interdependencies between the current request and other service issues being tracked by your system.

Important

This information about relationships also applies to release requests. Where exceptions exist, these are noted.

Change requests can be affected by incidents and problems. Change Management enables you to define relationships between change requests and other types of requests if the appropriate application has been installed.

The options described in the table below will vary based on the BMC Helix ITSM applications installed on the server.

Request type related to a change request	Description
Other change requests	When you work with a change request, you can define related requests that address similar issues. For example, a set of related requests can result from many change requests sent to the service desk by one requester. A set of related requests can also result from a single request that encompasses several other requests. You can create a series of dependent change requests, where one must be completed before another request can be started, for example, a change request to upgrade Microsoft Outlook on the email server that has a Dependent relationship to a change request to upgrade the operating system. For more information, see Creating-and-managing-relationships-between-change-requests.
Configuration items	When you work with a change request, you can view a related configuration item. For example, if you are working with a desktop system that consists of a laptop, mouse, keyboard, and docking station, the CI has information about the specific type of these CIs. For more information, see Relating-and-managing-configuration-items-and-impacted-services-for-a-change-request.
Unavailability of configuration items	When you work on a change request that requires a CI that would be unavailable when in use for the change request, you can view a related CI Unavailability. For more information, see Creating CI unavailability.
LDAP objects	When you work with a change request, you can view related LDAP objects. For example, you can relate a change request to an LDAP server where all the permission rights are stored to enable seamless authentication with the Policy Manager. For more information, see Performing additional functions with relationships.
Release	When you work with a change request, you can view or create release requests. Releases can be related to a change request (in the Relationships tab), or contain the change request in the Release manifest. For example, you can create a release request and include the change in the Release manifest. For more information, see Working with release manifests.
Software library items	When you work with a change request, you can view the related storage locations, for example, different versions of Microsoft Office along with their license contracts. For more information, see Performing additional functions with relationships.
Asset configuration	To perform this procedure, Asset Management must be installed and integrated. When you work with a change request, you can work with a related asset configuration. For example, if you are working on a change request involving a monitor, relate the change to the monitor. You can also temporarily assign another monitor to the requester because work is being done on the original monitor. In this case, you can relate the change request to both the monitor asset records.
Incidents and problems	To perform this procedure, Incident Management must be installed and integrated. For problem and known error investigation, Problem Management must be installed. When you work with a change request, you can relate incidents and problems. For example, if a change request for a server upgrade results in connection problems for the people affected by the change, you can relate their incident to the server upgrade change request as you open the cases. This relationship can provide helpful information to the support staff working on resolving the incident. For more information, see Viewing change dependencies.
Projects	A change request can be a part of a larger project. This relationship provides information about the project to which the change is related. Currently, you cannot relate a change request to a Project from the Change form.