Configuring the impact analysis settings

To configure Impact Weight Mapping

1. From the BMC Helix ITSM menu bar, click Settings.
2. Click Advanced Impact Analysis > Impact Weight Mapping.
3. From the Company list, select the required company.
4. Click Edit weight ranges.
5. Select the required Start and End ranges for the different impact levels.
   
6. Click Save.

To configure the value for the number of CIs

If the number of CIs related to an incident exceeds the configured value, an email notification is sent to the service desk agent.

1. In the BMC Helix ITSM menu bar, open Innovation Studio from the application launcher.
2. Select Shared Services > Application Configuration.
3. Click Edit data.
4. For the com.bmc.dsm.network-impact-analysis Application bundle ID, select the BULK_RELATE_ACTION_CI_COUNT configuration.
5. Change the Value from 100 to the required value.
   
6. Click Save.

To configure a service class

1. From the BMC Helix ITSM menu bar, click Settings.
2. From the Settings, select the appropriate option:
   • For Incident, select Advanced Impact Analysis > Service class configuration.
   • For Change request, select Change Management > Service class configuration.​​​​
3. In the service class configuration window, click + Service class.
   
4. Select the class from the Class ID list and click Save.
   A Saved successfully message is displayed.

To update the status of a service class

You can enable or disable the status of service classes to control their inclusion in the impact analysis run. An enabled service class is active and included in the impact analysis, while a disabled one is inactive and excluded.  When updating the status, make sure all selected service classes have the same status. For example, to enable service classes, all selected classes must currently be disabled. If the selected classes have mixed statuses, the status update buttons will be dimmed.

1. From the BMC Helix ITSM menu bar, click Settings.
2. From the Settings, select the appropriate option:
   • For Incident, select Advanced Impact Analysis > Service class configuration.
   • For Change, select Change Management > Service class configuration.
3. In the service class configuration window, select the class from the Class ID list that you want to update.
4. Select the status (enabled or disabled) that you want for the selected service class.
   
   The status of the service class is updated in the status column.

To delete a configured service class

1. From the BMC Helix ITSM menu bar, click Settings.
2. From the Settings, select the appropriate option:
   • For Incident, select Advanced Impact Analysis > Service class configuration.
   • For Change request, select Change Management > Service class configuration.
3. In the service class configuration window, select the class from the Class ID list that you want to delete.
4. Click Delete.
   
5. In the warning message, click Yes to delete the record.
   A Record(s) deleted successfully message is displayed.

To create an automated impact analysis rule for incidents

Rule-based impact analysis is automatically triggered when a rule matches the company name, trigger events, incident fields, and primary alarm fields defined in the rule. Also, if incident-related events, such as incident creation, CI association, or CI disassociation, are updated, impact analysis is triggered with a delay between updates. This automation reduces manual effort and provides faster visibility into service impacts.

To successfully create and save a rule, you must:

• Enter a description (rule name)
• Select a company name
• Select at least one trigger event (Incident creation, CI association, or CI disassociation)
• Add at least one mapping field in the qualification builder.

1. From the BMC Helix ITSM menu bar, click Settings.
   The Settings page is displayed.
2. Select Advanced Impact Analysis > Automated rule for incident.
3. Click + Rule.
   The create rule for incident panel is displayed.
   
4. Enter the name for the rule.
5. From the Company list, select the company to which the rule applies.
6. In Trigger event, select at least one of the following events:
   • Incident creation
   • CI association
   • CI disassociation
7. Enter a Precedence value for the rule. Rules with higher precedence are triggered first when multiple rules match.
8. In the Map with following fields section under Qualification, click Build expression.
   1. In the Build expression screen, in Fields, select the field that you want to map with the rule.
   2. In Operators, select the operator for the expression.
   3. In Value, select the value for the selected field and click Add.
      Similarly, you can add multiple conditions by using different operators, such as AND, OR, and LIKE.
   4. Click Apply.
      The following image shows an example of a qualification defined in the Build expression:
      
      ​​​
9. In the Post impact analysis actions section under Auto relate CIs post impact analysis, select one of the following options:

   Option	Description
   No	Does not relate any impacted configuration items (CIs). Impacted CIs must be associated manually (Optional). If you select this option, the Association options is dimmed.
   All impacted services	Associates only the impacted services defined in the service class configuration. No other configuration items are associated.
   All impacted CIs and services	Associates all impacted CIs and services identified by the impact analysis.
   Custom qualification	Applies actions based on a user‑defined qualification. ​​​When a Custom qualification is selected, click Build expression. ​​​​​​In the build expression window, select Fields, Operators, and add a Value to define your qualification, then click Apply to save the expression.

   ​​​

10. From the Association options list, select one of the following options. These options are available if you select All impacted services, OR All impacted CIs and services, OR Custom qualification option under Auto relate CIs post impact analysis.

    Option	Description
    Additive	Adds new impact associations to the incident after performing the impact analysis without deleting the existing impact associations.
    Delete existing and create new	Replaces all existing impacted associations with new impacted associations.

11. Click Save.
    The newly created automation rule is added to the Automated rule for the incident page.

To create an automated impact analysis rule for change requests

1. From the BMC Helix ITSM menu bar, click Settings.
   The Settings page is displayed.
2. Select Change Management > Impact Analysis Rules.
3. Click + Rule.
   The create rule for incident panel is displayed.
4. Enter the name for the rule.
5. From the Company list, select the company to which the rule applies.
6. From the Rule status list, select the status.
7. From the Trigger status list, select the change request status transition for which the automated rule is executed.
8. Enter a Precedence value for the rule. Rules with higher precedence are triggered first when multiple rules match.
9. From the Impact analysis method list, select the method.
10. In the Map with following fields section under Qualification, click Build expression.
    1. In the Build expression screen, in Fields, select the field that you want to map with the rule.
    2. In Operators, select the operator for the expression.
    3. In Value, select the value for the selected field and click Add.
       Similarly, you can add multiple conditions by using different operators, such as AND, OR, and LIKE.
    4. Click Apply.
11. From the Auto relate CIs post impact analysis list,  select one of the following options:

    Option	Description
    No	Does not relate any impacted configuration items (CIs). Impacted CIs must be associated manually. If you select this option, the Association options and Impact calculation options fields are dimmed.
    All impacted services	Associates only the impacted services defined in the service class configuration. No other services are associated. For more information about configuring service classes, see Configuring rules for automated impact analysis of change requests.
    All impacted CIs and services	Associates all impacted CIs and services identified by the impact analysis.

    ​​​​​

12. From the Association options list, select one of the following options. These options are available if you select the All impacted services, OR All impacted CIs and services option under Auto relate CIs post impact analysis.

    Option	Description
    Additive	Adds new impact associations to the change request after performing the impact analysis without deleting the existing impact associations.
    Delete existing and create new	Replaces all existing associations with new associations.

13. From the Impat calculation options, select one of the following options:

    Option	Description
    Based on service CI impact value	Use this option when the overall impact of a change is determined by the most critical service affected. The impact value is updated only if the calculated value is higher than the existing impact value.  Example: A change request has an existing impact value of Minor. Impact analysis identifies multiple impacted services, with the highest service impact value set to Moderate. Because Moderate is higher than Minor, the impact value is updated to Moderate.
    Based on impacted CI count	Provide a range (Minimum value and Maximum value) of the number of impacted CIs with impact levels. Use this option when the overall impact of a change is determined by the number of impacted configuration items (CIs). The impact value is updated only if the calculated value is higher than the existing impact value. Example: A change request has an existing impact value of Minor. Impact analysis identifies 22 impacted CIs. Based on the defined CI count ranges, 22 falls within the range for Moderate. Because Moderate is higher than Minor, the impact value is updated to Moderate.
    Custom process	Select the Process name from the list. Use this option to calculate the impact by using custom logic configured in BMC Helix Innovation Studio.​​​​ Example A change request requires an impact calculation based on organization‑specific criteria. A custom process is selected to evaluate the impact using the defined logic, and the impact value is calculated based on the outcome of that process. To know more about creating a process in BMC Helix Innovation Studio to define a logic for impact calculation, see Defining the application business logic through processes.

14. Click Save.
    The newly created automation rule is added to the Impact Analysis Rules page.

Supported operators for building expressions

The following are the operators that you can use while building the expressions.

To manage an automated impact analysis rule

Administrators can edit or delete automated impact analysis rules from the BMC Helix ITSM Settings. These rules help control how impact analysis behaves for both Incidents and Change Requests. The following table provides the steps to manage automated rules:

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Supported attributes and classes in the CMDB Common Data Model

The following attributes and classes are available in the CMDB Common Data Model to support the service impact-related activities in BMC Helix NetOps.

Attributes in the BMC_BaseElement class

Attributes in the BMC_BaseRelationship class

Classes in the Common Data Model