Managing Associations
Introduction
You can associate tracker items with other tracker items, forum topics, documents, source files, commits or external URLs. For example, an association enables you to define relationships between project plan documents and requirements, tasks or bugs. Associations are ad hoc relations between tracker items and any of the following:
• Other Codebeamer X entities such as other items or documents.
• External web resources via a URL.
In contrast to references, associations do not have a set defined value set or severity.
Adding Associations
New item associations can be created in any item status.
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Adding associations requires the Item - Edit Associations permission.
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To add an association to a work item, follow the steps given below:
1. Click + New Association available on the Associations tab of a work item.
2. Select an association type from the Association Type list.
The association type defines the relationship between the work item and the association. The following association types are available in the list:
◦ depends on
◦ is superordinate to
◦ is subordinate to
◦ is related to
◦ is derived from
◦ violates
◦ excludes
◦ invalidates
◦ was copied from
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There can only be one association with the same association type between two entities.
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3. Select any of the following options as applicable:
◦ Reverse order: Select to interchange the associated item and the item for which you are creating an association.
◦ Propagate suspects : If this option is selected, the association is marked as Suspected in case the associated item is modified. You can then decide whether the change in the associated item applies to your work item, and you can apply the changes in the associated item to the work item if necessary.
◦ Reverse direction: If this option is selected, the association is marked as Suspected in case the original work item which contains the association is modified.
◦ Bi-direction: If this option is selected, the association is marked as Suspected in case either the original work item or the associated item is modified.
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This Reverse direction and the Bi-direction options are enabled only if you select the Propagate suspects. Also, you cannot select both Reverse direction and Bi-directional at the same time. If the checkbox for one of these options is selected, the other option is automatically cleared.
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◦ Propagate Unresolved Item Dependencies: If this option is selected, the item's UID (Unresolved Item Dependencies) badge becomes active in case the item has unresolved associations which are configured to use this setting.
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This option cannot be used together with the Reverse direction option. If this option is selected, the Reverse direction option becomes inactive. Also, if the Propagate Unresolved Item Dependencies option is selected, it is not possible to specify a baseline or version for the reference.
The Propagate suspects option can only be used for associations between work items, dashboards, documents, and wiki pages. The Bi-directional option can only be applied between work items.
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The Propagate Unresolved Item Dependencies option can only be applied between work items, except for test runs, reviews, and SCM related items.
4. Select an item to associate with the current work item from the following available options:
◦ From Recent: You can select an item from the list of items that you have recently worked on.
◦ From Search: You can search for an item in current Codebeamer X instance.
◦ URL: You create an association using an external link.
Editing Associations
Existing associations can be edited to modify its settings without changing the associated tracker items.
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Editing existing associations requires either the Item - Edit Any or Item - Edit as Owner permission.
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To edit an association,
1. Click the Associations tab of the tracker item where the association is defined.
2. Locate the association to modify.
3. Click the More actions 
context menu for the association.
context menu for the association.4. Click Edit.
In the Editing association dialog, the Association Type, Comment, Reverse order and the Propagate suspects options can be modified.
5. Click Save to finalize the changes.
Deleting Associations
Existing associations can be deleted if the relationship between the associated tracker items is no longer required.
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Deleting existing associations requires either the Item - Edit Any or Item - Edit as Owner permission.
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To delete an association,
1. Click the Associations tab of the tracker item where the association is defined.
2. Locate the association to delete.
3. Click the More actions context menu for the association.
context menu for the association.4. Click Delete
5. Click Yes on the confirmation dialog.