Issue Manager tracks issues not only for specific products but also for:
• Specific versions of products
• Specific platforms that product versions are associated with
• Specific product components
Issue Manager even allows you to link products and components with specific inboxes because product teams often have more than one person writing code for a given application. For this reason, it’s useful to be able to automatically assign new issues to the appropriate developers based on product, component, release, and platform (“Setting Up Routing Rules”, explains how to set up inbox routing for products, components, versions, builds, and platforms).
Note Products, components, versions, builds, and platforms are created and edited via the SilkCentral Administration module. The only properties that can be configured via Issue Manager are product inbox settings.
How you decide to distinguish products from components is up to you. One organization’s “product” might be another organization’s “component”. Here are some basic definitions to assist you:
Product
A product is a piece of software that can be run separately from other software that may come with it. It can be sold separately if required. A product has a separate executable program and a separate code base. A product may be comprised of multiple components.
Component
A component is a functional area of a product. A component cannot be sold or run separately, and users do not perceive components as distinct products. A product may have one or more components associated with it.
A release is a specific version or software build of a particular product. It can be either an internal development build or a build shipped to customers. A product may have multiple releases associated with it. A specific release of a product may be available on more than one platform.
A platform is an environment in which a product runs, consisting of a combination of any of the following elements: hardware, operating system, or a specific operating system release (e.g., Windows XP).
Many of the values that are defined for products, releases, platforms, and components appear on the Products page (Configuration/Products).