Rational Rhapsody Tip #42 - Create dependencies between read-only elements

I'm back off my hols! This came up recently with a couple of customers. Both were asking "how can I create dependencies if the owner is read-only?". Well, this is possible with IBM Rational Rhapsody. However, you need Rhapsody 8.3, or later (January 2018). In 8.3 the General tab of the Features dialog has separate listings for both the Dependent and Depends On element. The owner is implicit from the element’s location, so generally you need to create the dependency first (under an owner that is read-write) and then move it. When you drag to move a Dependency then a dialog pops up to ask if you want to change the source, the target or both? To move the dependency but keep the relationship the same then you need to choose change source only. This short tips and tricks video highlights, by first drawing a dependency between two elements that are read-write and then trying the same thing when the two elements are read-only.

It also shows how Rhapsody creates an inferred "source dependency" category under the dependent element, even though the element is read-only and the true dependency owner is elsewhere in the model. The element which owns the dependency will have the "owned dependency" category. Such dependencies are still analyzed by the gateway in the same way, despite their change of ownership, enabling you to establish dependencies between two elements that are read-only and have this reported for traceability purposes.