To set the locks policies, in the Configuration Management Policies section on the Integrity Lifecycle Manager administration client, highlight Global Policies, select Policies > Edit, and click the Locks tab.

A lock is a feature of configuration management that controls how changes are made to revisions. Depending on your locking policy, when a change is checked in the revision being updated may need to be locked in order to prevent more than one user from simultaneously checking in changes to the same revision.

Integrity Lifecycle Manager supports two types of locks: exclusive and non-exclusive. The locking policy specifies the minimum lock required in order to commit changes: no lock, a non-exclusive lock, or an exclusive lock. The locking policy is defined at the repository level but can be overridden for specific projects, development paths, and archives (overrides at archive level are supported for exclusive locks only). Users can obtain a stronger lock than the locking policy requires, assuming that type of lock is available (only one person can obtain an exclusive lock on any particular revision).

The two types of locks and the locking policy allow you to implement three different locking models, each of which is suited to a particular development environment.