Propagate Suspects - Associations
In case the Propagate Suspects option (with or without any of its sub-options) is specified for an association, changes in the associated item (and/or in the original work item) will be displayed when you open the item:
The direction of the arrow displayed together with the Suspected badge can be the following:
• Upward arrow: indicates that an upstream reference has been modified.
• Downward arrow: indicates that a downstream reference has been modified.
To check the changes made in an association and/or to apply the changes to the work item (or the other way round), follow the steps below:
1. Click the 
badge next to the associated item:
badge next to the associated item:2. Using the Apply buttons on the Merge tab, merge recent changes or any other differences between the two work items as applicable:
You can decide which way you want to merge changes: from the associated item to the work item or the other way round. Use the leftward and rightward arrows in the Apply fields to merge changes as applicable.
 | You can easily apply all changes from one item to the other at the same time by using one of the Apply arrow buttons in the top row. This tab displays all differences between the two items not only the fields which have been modified now and which triggered the Suspected badge. |
If the Show different fields only option is selected (top right-hand corner), the system only displays the fields where the values are different in the two items. If this option is not selected, all the fields of the items are displayed (including empty fields).
In case the Omit Merge option is set for any field in the tracker (see section Setting Default Reference Settings per Field), changes made in that field will be listed under Fields not merged automatically on the Merge tab.
To clear the suspicions without merging any changes, click the Clear Suspected checkbox in the top left-hand corner.
To check the changes in the associated item which triggered the Suspected badge, click the Changes tab. To check the changes made in the original work item, go to the Derived Item Changes tab.
3. When you are finished merging changes, click Save to apply the changes.