Contexts Overview
A context organizes the database in a manner that is consistent with your company’s functional organization. A context has three critical components:
• Data – The data contained in a context is unique to a product or critical to a process or project.
• People – Each context has a team of users responsible for the creation and management of data.
• Process – A context has a defined set of formal or informal policies and processes surrounding the management of data.
Shared data, responsible people, and common processes intersect to define a context.
Context Types
Windchill provides the following standard context types. You access contexts under the Browse tab of the Navigator.
Icon | Label | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Products | Contains information that is unique to a specific product or product family. Teams of users representing the important roles within the organization are defined. Formal access control policies and standard configuration management processes are enforced. Most of the data contained in a product is related to the parts in the product structure. For more information, see About Products. | ||
 | Projects | Created to facilitate the collaboration of a group of people, inside and outside the company, around a specific task for a limited amount of time. Data from product or library contexts can be shared to the project, manipulated, and returned when the project is complete. A project employs informal review and approval processes. For more information, see About Projects and Programs.
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 | Libraries | Contains information that is relevant to many products. For example, fastener parts may be contained in a library so that they can be used in the part structures of all products. Standard parts libraries are actively managed to eliminate redundant parts thereby maximizing the company’s purchasing power and profit. Libraries can also contain documents containing standard company policies and practices. For more information, see About Libraries. | ||
 | Programs | Provides a central area to link together information, people, and plans for a series of related projects. Outside of program-level documents, the majority of information and activities associated with a program are managed in individual projects. For more information, see About Projects and Programs.
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 | Organizations | Provides access to organization-level utilities and administrative activities. For more information, see About Organization Administration.
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 | Site | Provides access to site-level utilities and administrative activities. For more information, see Administering the Site.
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 | In addition to the contexts displayed in the Navigator, the Changes icon  also appears; however, changes are not contexts. For more information, see About Change Management. |