Process Items and Workspace Change Packages

Process items act like lightweight change containers. Using process items enables you to link and track changes made to your files, even when you and other members of your development team are not required to use process rules. They provide traceability, allowing you to trace file changes to their purpose or context. They also provide a way to identify file revisions for a specific change request, task, or requirement so that, for example, you can attach those revisions to a view or revision label.

Note: The creation of process tasks and the Enhanced Process Model has been replaced by workspace (check-in) change packages. Files linked to a process item can now be viewed in the details of the Change tab or view.

Workspace (check-in) change packages are created when the following actions are performed on files and folders:

Add and check-in
Move
Rename
Delete

Note: Workspace (check-in) change packages are not the same as the change packages feature in View Compare/Merge.

When files are committed using a process item, the process item is linked via a trace to a workspace (or check-in) change package representing the atomic commit of files. Additionally, if an active process item is available in the StarTeam Cross-Platform Client at the time of a move or delete of files, then a workspace change package is created for the transaction and a trace is created from the active process item to the workspace change package.

Specifically:

The process item can be a change request, a task, a requirement, or other custom component defined for Process Rules in the Project Properties.
The process item can live in any view. It does not necessarily have to reside in the same view where the changes are being performed.

The StarTeam administrator can enforce the use of process items for a project by establishing process rules. You define process rules in the Project Properties dialog box. Process rules specify that process items must be used when checking in files, and they establish which type of items can be used as process items.

When process rules are enforced, you must link and pin all files you add or check in to a process item. If process rules are not enforced, you can still take advantage of the linking and tracking made possible with process items. As you add files or check them in, you indicate that the new file revisions are to be linked and pinned to a specific process item. You do this by selecting a change request, requirement, task, or custom component as the process item for the operation. At the same time you can mark the change request as fixed, the requirement as complete, or the task as finished.

Note: If there is an active process item available, the Check In dialog box automatically fills in the Process Item field.

Using process items enables you to clearly distinguish the following:

Which file revisions are related to or fix a specific change request.
Which file revisions are related to or complete a specific requirement.
Which file revisions are related to or finish a specific task.

Each view can have a different active process item. As you change from view to view, the process item information displayed on the status bar changes.