• Create Increment items to define the stages/phases/gates that you wish to use to determine the maturity of a Variation Point. An example is shown below:

• Define the sequence of Increments by using the Previous Increment relationship. Navigate to the Increment's Properties pane and select Items, Previous Increments. Click the Link button and select the preceding Increment.

• The Increment sequence is used when filtering Variation Points. When an increment is chosen in the Variant Selector, Variation Points linked to that Increment and its previous Increments are displayed. This applies recursively so the previous Increments of other previous Increments are also displayed.

• Links can be created on Variant diagrams using the Artifact Dependency relationship.

• Links can be created using the Start Link and End Link function, using the Artifact or Variation relationship depending on direction.

• Links can be created using the Properties pane:

◦ To link an Increment to a Variation Point, select the Properties pane for the Variation Point and select Items > Artifacts. Select the Link button then select the package that contains the Increment. Click the check box for the Increment you wish to link and click OK.

◦ To link a Variation Point to an Increment, select the Properties pane for the Increment and select Items > Variable Elements. Select the Link button, then All Variation Points. Click the check box for the Variation Point you wish to link and click OK.

• Launch the Variant Selector, select a Decision Set and click on the Select Increment button. The Increments defined within the current model will be displayed.

• Choose an Increment from the list to filter the Variation Points.

• When you choose an Increment, it is associated with the current Decision Set and used the next time that Decision Set is accessed.

• When you create a Product Model with filtered Variation Points, the Filtered Variation Points will be included in the resultant Product Model.