Capture component data

A component is a reusable block of functionality that is implemented by software. Applications are built on components that provide the technologies that enable the applications.

In Alfabet, components typically represent an interface for data exchange, a shared element that is able to deliver functionality to multiple applications, a subsystem of an application or a semi-finished application. In contrast to an application, a component typically does not deliver functionality to end users but rather provide technical functionality to support an application. Typical examples for components are databases, operating systems, and vendor products.

Components can be explicitly created and defined in the user interface, imported based on IT products in IT-Pedia®, or imported by an administrative user via an XSLX import based on data capture templates.

Users with the user profiles Technology Manager, Portfolio Manager, and Portfolio Admin can add and edit components in Alfabet. Click for an overview of permission concepts.

You can add a new component from anywhere in the product via the orange New button in the header. Or go to Technology Architecture > Components:

Create a new component from scratch. Click New > Component. Specify the components attributes as well as the relationships that the component has to other assets in the repository.

A guided data entry view is available to help you provide relevant data and ensure data quality for the components in your repository. When you create a new component in the editor, click the Close and Continue as Guided Editing button to open the data entry view. Or go to the component's content area toolbar and click Analysis View > Data Entry View.

You will see a content area page with an additional panel listing content items like Basic Data, Lifecycle Data, Evaluation. Click the content item caption to navigate to the content item in the data entry view.

Symbols indicate where data quality issues exist. Click the data quality issue symbol to navigate your focus directly to the spot where you can fix the issue.

Edit the attributes and relationships for a component. Click the Navigate  Navigate button next to a component to open its content area. Specify the component's attributes as well as the relationships that the component has to other assets in the repository.

Try to capture as much information as possible about the component because complete data considerably improves the results of business questions and other analytics.

Once a component is in the repository, you can define more details about it in the Components data workbench . Or specify and analyze the component in detail in its content area. All mandatory fields must be defined to create the component and save it.

Per default, the data workbench displays a limited set of basic attributes. You can add more columns via the Structure column to capture other attributes directly in the data workbench.

Define the architecture attributes.

Define the lifecycle attributes. All attributes in the Lifecycle Data attribute group in the component's content area should be specified before you specify the component's lifecycle phases.

IT-Pedia® from Eracent is a comprehensive IT product library that provides an up-to-date source of data about IT products of all types including, for example, hardware, software, and network devices. Alfabet provides an out-of-the-box integration with IT-Pedia that allows you to import components to the Alfabet repository. When an IT product is imported from IT-Pedia, it is imported to the Alfabet repository as a component. The manufacturer supplying the IT product is used to associate the respective component with an existing vendor in the Alfabet repository. If the vendor does not exist, it will be created and added to the Alfabet repository.

You can import IT-Pedia products in the IT-Pedia®Catalog - Models or products that you have added to My Product Catalog - Models. The following processes are supported in the context of IT-Pedia integration.

To use capabilities available for IT-Pedia integration, you must have access to an IT-Pedia account. If this is not the case, please contact and request access via: Alfabet Support. For details about Eracent's IT-Pedia®Catalog - Models or My Product Catalog - Models, access your account at: https://itpedia.eracent.com/PB/Account/Login

Be sure to add the columns Synchronize with IT-Pedia and IT-Pedia Enrichment to the Components data workbench in order to keep the component data current in the Alfabet repository as well as in Eracent's My Products - Models.

A nightly batch job triggers the ADIF import job schedule IT-Pedia Integration. This imports the data from IT-Pedia based on the data maintained in IT-Pedia's My Products - Modules. Please note that this does not delete components in IT-Pedia that have been delete in Alfabet nor does it merge duplicate products. The ADIF import job schedule IT-Pedia Integration can also be triggered on an ad-hoc basis by an administrative user.

The component lifecycle describes the succession of stages that the component goes through over time. A robust component lifecycle management includes versioning and planning for successor components to ensure that IT continues to support critical business areas.

Not all company's document their component lifecycles and it is not mandatory in Alfabet. However, robust component lifecycle management is key to the health to the business and helps you to understand identify and manage lifecycle conflicts. By documenting the lifecycles of the components in your technology portfolio, you will be able to identify which components are approaching end-of-life but have no defined successor components. Furthermore, you can understand which applications are at risk if the relevant technologies are no longer available.

Go to the component's content area > Overview.

Capture general data about the component. Go to the Lifecycle Data attribute box and specify the following.

  • Start Date and End Date: Captures when the component is actively running and can be used in the company. The Object State attribute should be specified set to Active during this period.
  • Object State: Describes the operational use of the component in the real world.
  • Successor: The next component that will follow this component version.

Describe the succession of stages that the component goes through. Go to the Component Lifecycle view.

  1. Click the component in the timeline and click EditSingle edit button.
  2. Activate the slider for the lifecycle phases to include and specify their start and end dates. The following lifecycle phases may be specified:
    • Manufacturer Support: Indicates that the technology is relevant to be used in a production environment.
    • Manufacturer Extended Support: Indicates that the technology is still available, but should be avoided for use in a production environment.
  3. Click Align Active Period to automatically align the start/end dates of the component's active period with the start/end dates of the lifecycle phases that are configured to begin and end the active period.

Assigning users and organizations to roles is critical to understanding responsibility for assets in the IT and is required to answer the business question Who is responsible for our assets?.

Responsibilities are based on preconfigured role types. Your company may also configure custom role types via the Portfolio Admin user profile. Depending on the role type, a specified user and/or a specified organization may fulfill the responsibility for the component. A user assigned responsibility via a role has read-only permissions to the component. To change data about the component, they must also be specified as an authorized user or member of a n authorized user group.

Roles can be assigned to a component in the Components data workbench or the component content area via Overview > Responsibilities.

Each role column represents the responsibility that a user or organization has for the component. A person can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:

An organization can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:

  1. Click a column cell to open a selector to define the role for the component. Depending on the role column, the selector may have a section for both Person and Organization.
  2. Expand the relevant section and select the person or organization to assign their role to the component.

An evaluation is a measurement of the performance of a component. The evaluation of components is relevant for many business questions in Alfabet and is critical to have meaningful results in these analyses.

Evaluation types bundle a set of indicator types that can be evaluated per asset. Evaluation types are preconfigured and your company may also configure custom evaluation types via the Portfolio Admin user profile.

You can define a component's indicators directly in the Components data workbench or in the component's content area via Overview > Evaluation. The view shows evaluation types in the Evaluation column with their associated indicator types in the Indicator column.

Understand the purpose of the indicator. Click the tooltip button for an explanation about the indicator. Any indicators that are colored orange are calculated by the system and cannot be manually edited.

Specify the value of an indicator. Select a value for each indicator in the Value column. Specify relevant information about the indicator in the Comments column.

Alternatively, click the Edit button to open an editor where you can enter verbose comments, or click the  ThreeDots_Black 3-dots button > Group Edit to edit multiple indicator types at once in an editor format.

Update default values for empty indicators. Click Action > Set Undefined Values to Default. All empty indicators for which a default value has been configured will be updated. Please note that the updated values will not be reflected in the Last Update field.

Manage computed indicators. Any indicators that are colored orange are calculated by the system and cannot be manually edited. To trigger the update of computed indicators, click the  ThreeDots_Black 3-dots button > Compute Indicators. To hide the computed indicators from view, click the  ThreeDots_Black 3-dots button > Hide Computed Indicators.

Go to the components content area > Technology Context > Component Usage - Lifecycles

The visualization is a Gantt chart that shows the lifecycles of all components in the repository. Here's how to interpret the information:

  • The top row shows the Component component. The rows below show  Application the applications using the component.
  • The timeline shows a red bar visualizing the active period (start date - end date) of the component. If a component lifecycle is defined, lifecycle phases will be displayed in a multi-colored bar above the red bar.
  • The blue vertical line indicates the current date.
  • Show only applications with a specified object state by clicking the Filter local filter button and setting the Application Object State field.
  • Click the Navigate navigate button to open the content area of an application.

The application has been specified to use the component in the application's content area > Technology Context > Click for details about capturing application data.