Extending capability patterns

If a capability pattern is extended into a process, method content elements in the capability pattern retain a connection to the original. Extended capability pattern elements cannot be deleted or modified and appear as read-only in green italic text.

This procedure can be used to extend any activity, not only capability patterns.

  1. In the Configuration view, select a capability pattern or its parts that you want to extend into an activity in a process and drag the pattern or parts into the activity to which you want it to apply. To select multiple activities in a capability pattern, press the Ctrl or Shift keys while you select.
  2. In the menu that opens, click Extend. The capability pattern name is displayed in green, which indicates it is part of a process defined elsewhere.
  3. Or, in the process view, right-click an activity and click Apply Pattern > Extend. The Select Dialog: Processes window opens.
  4. Drill down into the process tree until you locate the capability pattern that you want to extend.
  5. Select the pattern and click OK. The Select Dialog: Processes window closes and the capability pattern is applied.
Note: If you do not want a specific activity or task in the capability pattern to be included in your process, you can suppress it. The activity or task will not appear in the published process or be exported to a project planning tool. To suppress a process element, right-click the element and clickSuppress. The element is disabled in the process view.

To add elements to an activity in an extended capability pattern:

  1. Find the activity's parent element. If this element is not a local element that appears in green italic, then you need to create a contribution to this parent first. If the parent's parent is not local, also appearing in green italic, then you need to create a contribution to the parent first, and so on.
  2. To create a contribution to an extended activity, right-click the extended activity and click Local Contribution. The activity becomes local and is in black. Do this with all parent elements, from the top to the bottom, until you reach the activity to which you want to apply the element. After you click Local Contribution, the activity becomes local and is in black.